Walter Van Beirendonck: Dream The World Awake

Where to begin? I've been struggling to find the words on how truly amazing this retrospective exhibition of Walter Van Beirendonck's archive is since I saw it at the media preview early last week. As I previously mentioned I took over 500 photos that day and since then I've gone back a few times to take the images you see in the gifs in this post, but also to soak it all in and hopefully gather my thoughts. As you can see above, from the moment you walk in it's a visual feast of colour and movement (albeit a lot smoother than in my gif haha) and features pieces dating back from Van Beirendonck s graduate collection in 1980 through to today, a career spanning more than three decades. For those who don't know Walter Van Beirendonck is one of the famed Antwerp Six, a group of influential avant garde fashion designers who graduated from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts between 1980-1981 (the Antwerp Six also includes the likes of Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten). He is known for his spectacular fashion shows under the W.&L.T. label (Wild & Lethal Trash) which have featured everything from models line dancing to a collection of soft toys sitting front row with celebrities and editors relegated to the back row, as a sort of fuck you to the fashion system. Whilst in town Walter Van Beirendonck gave a series of talks with Chris Dercon, director of London's Tate Modern, and one thing that stood out for me from that was the idea that fashion is not art but rather industrial design ‘Fashion is not art, fashion can use art and art can use fashion but fashion is not art,’ said Dercon. ‘I think that fashion is one of the most important expressions of industrial design.’ Beirendonck agreed. Of course fashion can be creative and artistic, you'd only have to look at this exhibition to see that, but nearly all of the pieces in the exhibition were sold commercially and as such they have a primary function which makes them design. If only all designers were as brave and daring as Walter Van Beirendonck, who works within the commercial restraints of fashion but pushes the boundaries - what a different world it would be.

Walter Van Beirendonck at the media preview.


I can't believe I got to speak to Walter Van Beirendonck!!! Turns out we had a friend in common - Yann the owner of uber cool Tokyo boutique Wut Berlin who stock Walter Van Beirendonck. I was encouraged as 'media' to ask some questions, and I say the term loosely as I'm no journalist, my blog is just my personal experience, but in this changing world of new media I do try to ask questions relevant to my blog and readership. That's why I asked former Spice Girl Mel B about platform sneakers (the only person at the press conference to do so, most others were about her weight and Jenny Craig ad - snooze fest, I wanna know about her shoes from the Spice Girl days!!!) and why I asked Walter Van Beirendonck about Tokyo, where in the late 90s early 00s he had a W.&L.T. store and was heavily featured in FRUiTS magazine. He said that being featured in FRUiTS was more important than being in any fashion editorial in Japan at the time as it really translated to sales in the country - which is very interesting now with the popularity of street style and personal style blogs around the world don't you think? FYI the photo was taken by my talented photographer friend Elliot Lauren, thanks for capturing the moment so perfectly Elliot.


RMIT fashion students arrived at the media preview as a 'student runway' paying homage to the great designer whilst showcasing their own designs.


So much creativity and most importantly SWAG.














I can't get over how good all the students looked.


My first experience with Walter Van Beirendonck is seeing his clothes in the first issues of FRUiTS magazine I bought back in 2001 as a 16 year old and wanting desperately to see them or buy them in person. I would see the W.&L.T. shopping bag above all the time in every issue and think to myself I needed to go to that shop pronto. Sadly by the time I did get over to Tokyo in 2003 it was closed and all my original FRUiTS magazines from the time were stolen, but I do have the FRUiTS book which is where I got these Harajuku street style images, dating from around 1999-2000 of people wearing W.&L.T. Above to the left is Sakatch who wears a t-shirt, long t-shirt and bag all by W.&L.T. and over the page is Mizutchi whose bag is W.&L.T.


Saori on the left wears a W.&L.T. 'Puk Puk' bag and over the page to the left Youyou wears the same character but in dress form.


Puk Puk was obviously a popular design in anime character obsessed Japan, where even the police have a cute mascot!!! To the left Hirohide wears a Puk Puk shirt and bag by W.&L.T. and over the page Inachi's backpack and shopping bag are by W.&L.T.


Archin and Masabo are both wearing W.&L.T. bags and over the page Hi to the left is wearing a W.&L.T. shirt. I think seeing Walter Van Beirendonck's clothes being worn outside of a gallery space makes them see all that more wearable, less like art and more like the the functional industrial design he sees his work as.

Walter Van Beirendonck: Dream The World Awake
RMIT Design Hub
Tuesday to Friday: 11am - 6pm 
Saturday: 12pm – 5pm
Open until 5th October 2013
FREE!!!