Walter Van Beirendonck FW24 Combines Fine Tailoring With Surrealism
A collage of consequences.
Walter Van Beirendonck‘s Fall/Winter 2024 was a collection that played on the cadavre exquis. Through surrealist motifs, the collection comes in forms of clashing shapes, cuts and patterns to create a collage of consequences.
In the show notes, Van Beirendonck calls this collection “baNaNaWinKBooM.” He wrote, “My process creating this brand-new collection was different. Weirder. I played a Frankensteinian art game with my own mind.” Freeing his own monsters from his intellect, the designer tapped into his absurdist ways to find new ways of incorporating mundane shapes into geometric masterpieces. Both kitsch and camp, the collection is filled with eye-catching silhouettes that contrast one another, yet work perfectly well when combined into one. From matching rich velvets with felted wools, checks, lamé and embroidery, Van Beirendonck does what he does best — mixing and matching to bring together fine tailoring and surrealism.
The show itself was refreshing. While models often walked to a booming soundtrack overhead, each of the models entered the room with their own track — be it white noise, a classic song or futuristic space effects. Audiences felt free to chuckle and even sing along to some of the tracks. Models walked into the room, introducing themselves, saying phrases like “I come from space,” and even making hand gestures like peace signs before walking the entire runway. From lengthy jackets clad in vibrant yellow and orange and even black and white fringes to a plush snake scarf, garments had an otherworldly effect. Visual clashes occurred from head to toe, hair to makeup to accessories to the full outfit. With geometric shapes creating the stand-out silhouettes, the collection was an organized chaos filled with vibrancy and fun.
Take a look at the collection above.
