“My creativity is always with me”: 40 years of Walter Van Beirendonck

In Antwerp, one of the city’s most emblematic designers celebrates the anniversary of a label built on political resistance and visual idiosyncrasy.

We’re climbing up the fifteen flights of stairs in a building in the centre of Antwerp, surrounded by neon tape and danger warnings. On the seventh floor of the building in construction, an unusual crow awaits. W’s stitched on voluminous caps and brightly-coloured catsuits with skeleton patterns replace the usual fashion attire. Ann Demeulemeester sits in the front row. We’re gathered to celebrate Walter Van Beirendonck’s 40th anniversary show. 

The designer usually shows in Paris as part of the menswear schedule, but, for the occasion, chose his home turf. For four decades, the Belgian designer has been many things at once: provocateur, one sixth of the Antwerp Six, mentor and a northstar for political activism in fashion. Curiously, his label’s historic anniversary coincides with the first edition of the Antwerp Fashion Festival, a program that highlights a new generation of designers – many of whom are indebted, directly or indirectly, to Beirendonck’s legacy. The extent of which was clear by the unorthodox nature of the show. 

As lights went down and almost immediately turned back on, the sound of “What a Wonderful World” filled the desolate venue and a model in a teddy bear jumper and shorts walks the runway. Straight from Beirendonck’s Autumn/Winter 1986’s collection, the designer’s first, the look is reimagined to perfection. What followed were similarly recreated looks, one for each season the designer has been in business. Eighty looks over eighty seasons. Neon latex bodysuits that left the body bare. Oversized knitted gloves that almost reach the floor. Oversized quilted coats with contrast lining. Gigantic cone headdresses that completely hid the model’s face. When the historic parade ended, Beirendonck presented his Autumn/Winter 2027 collection. Military dress was toyed with through floral patterns and loud colours. In a way, it was hard to distinguish from the retrospective just witnessed. 

Since launching his label in the early 1980s as part of the generation that would come to be known as the Antwerp Six, Van Beirendonck has weathered seismic changes in both the industry and the world. Through it all, he has remained fiercely independent, producing collections that continue to challenge conventions while speaking directly to the world around them. “I think a lot of people are still fascinated by the energy I’m still putting in these collections and the way I’m making them and pushing them out,” Walter tells me backstage. “My creativity is always with me.”

The consistency might be a result of the methodical nature of his process. “It starts with research and with making a kind of collage of books to bring my ideas together, and then I’m doing the fabrics, and then I’m starting to do these drawings,” he explains. By the time he begins sketching, the collection already exists in his mind. “Everything is drawn exactly like the final look, even the styling, the hair, the makeup, everything is decided.” The drawings themselves function almost as blueprints. “If you compare the sketches with the final looks on the show, it’s very one on one,” says the designer the night after his show, in the opening of an exhibit that exhibits those sketches.  

For Philippe Pourhashemi, fashion critic and longtime fan of Beirendonck’s work, the designer’s biggest achievement was showing there’s a way forward, regardless of the fashion industry’s tides. “It’s not so much about fashion or trends, but establishing a language, a style that is specific to him.” That visual identity draws freely from music, cinema and popular culture. The resulting clothes are, as Philip puts it, “uplifting, singular, and also they’re playful.” Even at their most provocative, they are animated by humour. Walter possesses “a sense of humour that’s very Belgian,” he says.

Looking back at work produced decades apart, recurring themes emerged: exaggerated silhouettes, vibrant colour, graphic slogans, playful sexuality and a fascination with imagined futures. Tom Van Der Borght, designer and fellow mentor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, sees that consistency as evidence of genuine vision. “The two oldest pieces, they felt like they could be from a collection of today, so extremely current.” 

For Julian Klausner, creative director at Dries Van Noten, his impact can be felt in how the designer tugged at the boundaries of the male wardrobe. “Walter represents a daringness, radicalness, a completely alternative way to look at menswear,” he states. “He gave men a lot of freedom to be daring, to wear colour, to be loud, to experiment.” But to speak of Beirendonck’s language, context is necessary. 

Visit the Antwerp Six exhibit, currently at the Momu, the city’s fashion museum, and you’ll see a panoply of Beirendonck’s show invites. If queerness is palpable in his creations, it’s literally readable in his invites, one of which places his head on a literal bear, while another reads “Big Boys are Toys.” Before conversations of inclusivity and diversity were in vogue – a trend that has clearly passed by – the designer was putting plus sized men on the runway. “I remember seeing his shows that had bears in them, so much of his identity has been about showcasing those different people,” says Pourhashemi. Bears here are not of course the animal, but its queer counterpart in the shape of hairy, plus sized men.

Reducing Beirendonck’s work to representation alone misses the broader point, his queerness has always operated as a worldview rather than a demographic category. “His idea of queerness is all embracing,” the critic continues. “It’s basically looking at humanity and trying to find harmony.”

The self-made retrospective showed just how consistently confrontationally political themes have appeared throughout his career. For Conor Turley, a recent graduate of the MA fashion design program at Royal Academy of Arts – the same school Beirendonck has taught in for the past nearly four decades –, his political activism is inseparable from his legacy.  “He did collections to protest, to raise awareness for HIV at a time when the risk in doing so was big.” Turley, whose work interjects 18th century menswear with ballroom culture of the 1980s, calls Beirendonck a “great inspiration.”

For the Belgian designer, political activism was never a choice he made intentionally. “I did it spontaneously from the beginning because I found it very important,” he says. “Somebody with a voice or somebody who can talk to the world or has a certain audience has almost the role to do that.” His position is straightforward: visibility carries responsibility. “It’s essential that people who have a kind of public attention are prepared to share their opinion.”

Today, some of Walter’s strongest critiques are directed at fashion itself. The industry that once made room for radical independent voices has become increasingly dominated by global luxury conglomerates and marketing machinery. “How can you show a collection properly in Paris if next to you is Louis Vuitton and next to you is Hermès?” he asks. “It’s not making sense as an independent designer.” Underlying the criticism is a concern for what fashion risks losing. “It became all about selling as much as possible,” the designer says. “Marketing became incredibly important” and, as a result, “we’re losing these beautiful things.”

Once again, he takes matters into his own hands. For over four decades, he has occupied a unique position within Antwerp’s fashion ecosystem, simultaneously producing collections and mentoring future generations. The list of designers who have passed through his orbit is extraordinary. “I have also had a lot of interns, from Craig Green to Raf Simons. These are all people who came through me,” he says. “I think the most impact I’ve had has been through my teaching,” he says.

Klausner describes his influence through the Academy as immeasurable. “His role as a director of the Academy has contributed to hundreds of incredible designers being shaped.” One of which was designer Julie Kegels, who believes Beirendonck’s influence extends far beyond technical education. “He created space for individuality, for boldness, and for being unapologetically yourself,” she says. More importantly, he fostered a culture in which personal vision takes precedence over commercial conformity. That philosophy has become synonymous with Belgian fashion itself.

Mattia Van Severen, another of Van Beirendonck’s former students who showed his latest collection in the Antwerp Fashion Festival, says his mentorship continues long after students leave the Academy. Severen recalls meeting Van Beirendonck after showing his first collection after graduating. “He told me, ‘So you did your first season, good. Now don’t give up, now keep on doing.’”

Geert Bruloot, organiser responsible for the Antwerp Six’s London shows, as well as the curator for the ongoing exhibit about the group of designers at the Momu, sees Beirendonck’s perseverance as his most inspiring feature. “Walter has been challenged by many obstacles during his whole career, but he’d never missed one season. He was always there, even if he didn’t have money, he was there,” he says.

Beirendonck remains deeply invested in what comes next. While acknowledging that social media has opened doors for younger creatives, he also recognises the pressures they face. “When we started, there were no computers, there was nothing,” he says. Today, opportunities are greater, “but on the other side they’re completely overwhelmed by this rough business.” For the designer, the future of fashion depends on preserving space for independent voices. “I think independent designers are how we can keep the soul of fashion alive,” he says. Without them, he warns, the industry risks becoming creatively stagnant: “If it’s only the big houses, we are losing the creativity in fashion.”

It is a sentiment that feels especially resonant at a moment when fashion is increasingly consolidated and commercialised. Yet Walter’s forty-year career stands as proof that there remains another path. As Bruloot, who has witnessed the evolution of Belgian fashion from the beginning, puts it: “Walter is a true fashion creator. He’s created every season. He takes you on an adventure every season.” Forty years after launching his label, that adventure is far from over.