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Walter Van Beirendonck: Thriller

"I love that bananas can look happy and sad. Depending how you turn them around.” Walter Van Beirendonck is rationalising why he titled his AW24 men’s collection Banana Wink Boom! Aside from his fondness for seemingly cheery, or gloomy, yellow fruit, the inimitable Belgian designer chose the other two words to further emphasise the surreal nature of his approach to the collection. More about that later.

Today, Van Beirendonck, 67, is ensconced in the studio at his rural home in Zandhoven, a dozen miles from Antwerp, surrounded by a collection of his favourite toys. He admits to being "rather tired but happy". The preceding week was busy, as he was in Amsterdam, starring in a shoot to promote a new collaboration with G-Star.

Van Beirendonck might not be the most conventional model, but he is definitely photogenic: the shaved head, stocky frame and bushy beard ensure that. This morning he's been sketching ideas, admiring the many snails in his much-loved garden, and - ever the massive music enthusiast - repeatedly listening to his current favourite track, Nowhere to Go by the Dutch electronic group Tinlicker featuring Placebo's Brian Molko, cranked up to maximum snail-quaking volume: "It feels like raving in the '90s!"

Bananas. Snails. Toys. Techno.

There is something wonderfully open-minded and childlike about the way Van Beirendonck engages with the world. Childlike, not childish, just to be clear. Although the collections he's executed across the past 40 years might often seem cartoony, wildly vibrant and delightfully bonkers, the underlying intelligence and wit of his ideas are those of a constantly whirring adult mind. After all, his creative process has long since been preoccupied with grown-up themes including sexuality, ecology, protest, war, diversity, identity and technology, referencing sources from art, literature, music and nature. And his innovative and often-humorous command of colour, cuts, fabrics, textiles, graphics and text always look sophisticated, never tacky.
Staying true to your own vision as a proudly independent designer is not easy within an industry dominated by gargantuan conglomerates and thus prone to swift shifts in consumer tastes and aspirations. "My career is and was a rollercoaster," he freely acknowledges. "And I've kept on going despite all the storms I went through."

“My career is and was a rollercoaster. And I’ve kept on going despite all the storms I went through”

The adventure began when he launched his namesake label in 1983, having concluded his education at the esteemed Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Later, as part of the gaggle of designers nicknamed the Antwerp Six - the others being Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Marina Yee, Dirk Van Saene (Van Beirendonck's partner), Dirk Bikkembergs and, occasionally, Martin Margiela as an honorary plus-one - Van Beirendonck gained fandom in London when the Six showed their collections there for the first time in 1987. He unleashed eponymous collections each season thereafter, spreading his uncompromising aesthetic to die-hard devotees around the world. For much of the 1990s， Van Beirendonck's sideline W&LT (Wild & Lethal Trash) collections, produced in partnership with Mustang Jeans, established an industry standard for giddy shows full of drama. Few who witnessed the W.&.L.T set, which was made to look like giant revolving cakes, with hench hunks clad in candy-coloured skintight latex catsuits - not to mention masked models who couldn't SCC properly tumbling off the end of the runway and into the audience's laps - will ever forget them.

Van Beirendonck's work has been steadily showcased in galleries, museums and department stores globally. He has successfully realised many discerningly chosen collaborations and projects - curation, costume design, stage wear, furnishings, kids' clothing, books and charity fundraising. These range from creative hookups with Scapa, Selfridges, Rei Kawakubo, U2 (he costumed each band member for their Pop tour in 1997), Coca-Cola, Eastpak and Juergen Teller Amnesty| International, Bloomingdale's, Bang & Olufsen, Marc Newson and the Royal Ballet of Flanders, among many others. In tandem, Van Beirendonck also consistently taught part-time at the Antwerp Academy, where he first trained, eventually becoming head of the fashion department in 2007, before retiring from teaching in 2022. Never a dull moment for Mister VB.

The latest breed to discover the Van Beirendonck world arc, of course, Gen Z's fashion thrill-seekers, who are viewing anew the pupil-dilating rush of his archive and freshest work online and via social media. It's a full-circle thing: Van Beirendonck was one of the first fashion creatives to experiment with the potential of the internet and technology back in the '90s, showing collections on his own website, while other designers were still fathoming how to switch a computer on.

Needless to say, he's keenly embraced social media. "What I like today is the direct contact with my public and fans," he says. "I follow a lot of people showing interesting content. And when i see the new work of artists, I go to their Instagram to see more. Sometimes I contact someone out of the blue to ask for a collaboration." He acknowledges that the immediacy and democracy of fashion nowadays is a far cry from his first forays: "I remember the secrecy from the '80s, designers showing their collections for a small audience. And, then, finally discovering these collections six months later in shops and magazines. It was nice and intriguing, but completely different from today.."
Banana Wink Boom! gave Van Beirendonck an opportunity to incorporate certain appealing traits of shows from decades gone by, as well as remixes of his own glorious back catalogue. For starters, the scale of the presentation itself was dinky - as so many shows were, back in the day - with the eager audience squeezed into a petite Paris apartment. He elaborates: "I really wanted to go much more intimate than previous seasons. The models were literally in the middle of the audience, showing their looks to them, stopping in front of them, turning, sometimes saying a word or their name. Or just showing their handbag, or an accessory, or smiling." Each of the models was designated a concealed speaker from which a specific song beloved of Van Beirendonck would blare, from artists such as David Bowie, Suicide, The Human League, the Velvet Underground, Mazzy Star and Blondie. "It created a feeling of music that arrived, becomes louder, and then disappears. A kind of sound chaos in the rooms," he says.

Van Beirendonck believes a genuine sense of modern luxury should involve "a beautiful, crafted piece, a unique garment, not logos and labels. A piece you fall in love with, one that you have saved for, that you can keep on wearing for ever. One that's made from quality fabric, produced in a transparent and honest way."

“I hope young people get motivated to be creative and keep on believing in their strength, power and energy”

His offering for this season is a brilliant collage-y antidote to banal corporate fashion. Van Beirendonck channelled cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse), a game pioneered by the surrealists back in the 1920s, in which a part of the body would be drawn upon a piece of paper, then folded and passed on to the next person to add to, resulting in a kooky figurative mutation. "It got me out of my comfort zone. I was taking decisions, making combinations, in a very spontaneous way. Mixing shapes, forms, colours, prints differently and freer than I ever did before." Maximising this mash-up factor, he also reintroduced some of his archive bangers into the collection. Not least a selection of the hats originally fashioned by superstar milliner Stephen Jones, a key collaborator for more than 25 years, which had first appeared in AW97's Avatar collection. “I was happy to reuse old make-up ideas and accessories," says Van Beirendonck. "And it amazingly connected with the collection. It was also my way to show the world - and younger generations - what| I did before." Ever the teacher and mentor, he adds, "I really do hope that young people get motivated to be creative. And that they keep on believing in their inner strength, power and energy."

Having produced one of the most exciting, eccentric collections to liven up the cold months ahead - as these images show — there is clearly no likelihood of Van Beirendonck slowing down any time soon. What keeps fashion's most hard-working and adventurous designer endlessly motivated? "Probably my unstoppable desire to create and be creative?" he ponders. "And to make people happy and smile!" Spoken like an absolute winner.