Walter Van Beirendonck is a Belgian fashion designer who is not exactly known for being a conformist. In his collections there are masks with such statements as “Blow Job” and fluorescent skirts for men.
Over the last three decades, Walter Van Beirendonck has built an impressive international career. As the maverick of Antwerp fashion, he is famous for his colourful collections, his completely unique perception of beauty, his spectacular fashion shows and the socially critical themes touched on in his designs.
This fashion designer was born in Brecht, Belgium, in 1957. He moved to Antwerp, the Belgian fashion city, where he studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1980, Van Beirendonck graduated.
Three years later, he began with a collection under his own name. In 1986, he and five of his fellow students from the academy presented collections at the British Designer Show in London, where the British press took notice of them and branded them “The Antwerp Six”.
Collections
Walter Van Beirendonck works, besides the collections, regularely on projects: designing, costumes for theater, ballet and film, curating expositions, designing objects, think-tanking for commercial projects and products, image-making for pop-groups, illustrating books, designing commercial collections…
His most important collaboration was perhaps form 1993 to 1999, with Mustang, the German jeans manufacturers, for whom he designed the W.&L.T. (Wild & Lethal Trash) line for the rapidly developing youth market. For W.&L.T., Van Beirendonck developed a new aesthetic, one in which he could combine his fascination for technology, hig-tech materials, multimedia and experimentation with sharp, critical statements.
Van Beirendonck has also been a highly valued asset at the Royal Acadamy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, initially as a teacher and since 2007 as director of the fashion department. Moreover, he has a children collection, called ZULUPAPUWA, for JBC (a Belgian fashion chain of shops).
U2 PopMart Tour
In 1997 Walter Van Beirendonck designed all costumes for Irish band U2’s extravagant PopMart tour.Van Beirendonck created a different carácter for each band member, like Bono Masn, Muscle Man, Lopswided Man, Hitman an Electric Cowboy , inspired by Action Man characters.
“Dream The World Awake”
“Dream the World Awake” is the name of his exhibition in Atwerpen. This retrospective exhibition investigates Walter’s world and the sources of his inspiration by way of six themes. These themes are:
- Fairtales, based on the use of phrases and slogans.
- Alien Spirits, because of Van Beirendonck’s predilection for science fiction, the future, the supernatural and spirituality.
- Techno crafts, characterized by the tension between both technology and techniques.
- Alterations, which reflects how Van Beirendonck questions our accepted ideas about beauty and sets out in search of alternative images of the body
- Rituals, delves more deeply into Van Beirendonck’s fascination with ritual, ranging from ethnic initiation rites to fetishism and S&M.
- And Actions/Reactions, focuses on the controversial themes and social statements in Walter Van Beirendonck’s oeuvre.
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