Featured
Walter Van Beirendonck Gives Peace A Chance
The last man standing of the Antwerp Six, Walter Van Beirendonck, is much less about the past than he is about the future, which he chooses to regard without fear and “extreme emotions.” It’s a personal choice to choose now to look away from archives, vintage, and old subcultures, instead embracing AI-generated images and 3D-printed pieces in his “NEW” fall/winter 2025–26 menswear collection.
With all intentions to tap into the unseen, Van Beirendonck teleports to a world entirely his own. New lengths and shapes swell the stage, topped with a uniquely mysterious take on headgear by Stephen Jones: megadome bowling hats, big balaclavas, and bucket hats with knee-length fringe swinging from the brim, obscuring identity, just begging “Beam me up, Scotty.” Billowy earth-tone wool and tweed suits accented by fluorescent oranges, neon greens, and electric blues make for color combinations not traditionally seen here but could be in another universe. Round toe lace-up boots lined with rubber studs are the closest thing to combat in a collection that comes in peace.
Get Miu’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
The ultra-long silicone jelly fingers seen dangling off of the models in “NEW” are reminiscent of a key scene in the interdimensional, absurdist, award-winning film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022). The hotdog finger-flinging scene, intentionally bizarre and grotesque, features Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis slapping each other in the face with their fingers-turned-hotdogs, ultimately leading to Michelle Yeoh’s character finding beauty in the unexpected, much like what Walter Van Beirendonck finds in his extraterrestrial inspiration for “NEW.”
