Walter Van Beirendonck

When I walk in he’s still sitting at the table, hunched over a piece of work and listening to Kraftwerk. When he sees me, he immediately gets up and walks towards me. I catch my breath because Walter Van Beirendonck is one of the people I came across for the first time through my mother, in the pages of a magazine in our East Berlin kitchen in the mid-1980s.

Van Beirendonck was and is something of an outlier in the fashion world. His colourful, often cartoonish collections are the result of complete creative freedom and independence. And that has enabled him, throughout his career, to maintain a position that pushes boundaries, provokes controversy and transcends any kind of superficiality.

SLEEK:  I saw your 2023 Journal in the shop at MoMu [ModeMuseum, Antwerp] yesterday. It’s exciting that you’ve designed something that seems behind the times. And yet a journal or diary is something very personal because it’s where we might write a note or a poem, or a momentary idea that you capture, or you draw something in it…

Walter van Beirendonck:  [grinning] I work in a very physical and very old-fashioned way. Just look at this table here. [The table we’re sitting at is also Walter’s desk. There are piles of cut-out letters, colour charts, pens, thick black notebooks, folders and cuttings lying around. On the floor, I notice a pile of collages.] Of course, I have people who can work on computers and translate everything into the digital world but I myself am very physical: I print things out, I hold everything in my hands and look at things in two dimensions. I have to touch, test, cut out and put together. It’s a very real process and I like that. I adore books and love just leafing through them. It’s all so much more attractive.

S: And how did the idea for the Journal come about?

WVB:  Well, I was invited by a publisher to create a kind of diary-cum-journal. I said okay to this project because they accepted my condition that I’d be completely unrestricted. You should know that to print the Journal, we used techniques that are not so easy to do in the normal printing process. We used screen printing because that was the only way we could use fluorescent colours as well. The whole thing is precious because it is also expensive to produce [his whole face lights up with laughter]. I had this idea that the design for each month would feature dancing letters and numbers.

S:  Dancing, colourful letters, words, symbols, signs… I associate all of that with you and your work as a designer. You work with a whole palette of feelings and messages, so your form of communication is quite direct. Where does your love of words and typography come from?

WVB:  Wait, I’ll show you my workbooks: here you can see that words and texts always appear everywhere. I make collages in which I include words and texts, and this creates new word games. I cut up, put together and use different topographies.

S:  I can totally understand that because I always start with words and concepts before I plunge into an interview with someone. I look for concepts that express how I imagine the person to be.

WVB:  That’s interesting. And how often does your idea match the real thing?

S:  I don’t even think about it when I look back. It’s more a kind of method.

WVB:  A lot happens spontaneously in my work. It’s not that I’m thinking all the time or overthinking too much. While I’m sketching, I decide to do this or that. 

S:  You are a political person and you never concealed that. I assume that wasn’t a decision, was it?

WVB:  Correct. The thing is, I’m aware of what’s going on in the world. I get involved by trying to let my views pervade my work. I’m reflecting on what is happening around me. I’m reacting immediately to certain issues by trying to get involved. Look at these collages. [He shows me some pages from his books.] It’s very important that I use my voice to tell people something that will make them think. A lot of people see me as a crazy person who makes colourful T-shirts and they don’t think about it any deeper. For me, there’s always something deeper and there’s always a story behind it.

S: But it also seems to me that it’s about the feeling of rebellion that drove you as a young man.

WVB: Well, we [he means the Antwerp Six] were extremely frustrated and annoyed with the structures around us. We had this dream of actually conquering the world. It’s normal when you’re young. Basically, we were a Belgian start-up and we did a lot of fashion shows and exhibitions and worked on projects in Belgium. But then we realised that everything stayed within Belgium, and that was very frustrating because we wanted to reach an international audience. We took London by storm, trying to show something that we thought was different and that should be heard and seen. Everything else was pure ambition, very spontaneous and without a master plan. I think that people are still excited about our story and they want a story like that themselves. I’m afraid that if you think too much about everything and have to make a marketing plan out of everything, then it’s better not to even start. It’s not easy to get going but I’m inspired by the idea of just taking off and experimenting. If it doesn’t work, you’re probably going to fail, but at least you tried.

S: Was that also something you taught the students when you were a teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts?

WVB:  I returned to the Academy as a teacher quite quickly after graduating. I was the same age as other students then, so it was a bit of a strange situation. I have an extremely strong imagination, and that has helped me a lot in teaching. Throughout the whole time I was teaching, I tried to encourage students to be guided by their art and by their own ideas. I tried to encourage them in this way and not by telling them what to do. I’ve always focused on the students’ perspective and started with them because that was the only way they really felt they could speak their own creative language. The most important thing is that everyone finds their own answers and opportunities. I was able to help them recognise their own style in all its diversity right from the start.

S:  Did you let your experiences as a student influence your opportunities as a teacher?

WVB:  Oh, that’s a hard question. Of course, you’re never free of your experiences and there is a big difference between teaching and studying. It’s a bit like trial and error, and you drive yourself on by trying things out. I think the more mature you get, the more you can skip this part and go straight to the results. I’ve done so many different things in my life, tried many different approaches and I’m now at a point where I work in a pretty direct way. You can’t do that as a student, not yet. You’re still searching.

S:  Reality in the form of global challenges means that we have to look for new paths. How do you approach that?

WVB:  Absolutely. We no longer have the choice of staying the same. Personally, I never want to stop influencing the way people think. I was always afraid for the world, for nature, for the climate. I care about people and I respect people. I like diversity because it’s very natural for me and reflects such an important part of my thinking, working and way of living. I feel really connected to the whole process.

S:  It’s about your life’s work and that’s why your voice is influential.

WVB: Yes, but it’s also a struggle. We have to fight for freedom and also in a certain way for the products we create. I think in our world, we’re able to find a healthy balance and a path in terms of commercial things. Without money, our system just doesn’t work. I’ve always felt a bit of an outsider in the fashion industry. On the one hand, you have to adapt and work commercially and on the other, I’ve withdrawn from the system and do small things, which are very important because they give me the opportunity to do what I want. That’s vital to me.

S: You have to fight for this independence or fight over this independence, right?

WVB: Over the years, my career has been a roller-coaster, with highs and lows, and I’ve sometimes made decisions that have had a major impact on my life, work, money and everything else. There were difficult times. I’m very happy that in the year 2000, I made the decision to become completely independent and fight for my freedom. Today, I can say that this decision has made me very happy.

S: And what drives you on?

WVB:  The fact that I still enjoy everything and I’m doing even more than ever before. I’m literally starting to feel my own gratitude and that makes me happy. There’s a public that appreciates my work and there are people who are real fans. It’s a nice feeling that you’re not just doing this for yourself but for this whole community. And that creates a certain energy. My whole career has made sense to a certain group of people who genuinely believe in such a thing as a vocation.

As featured in SLEEK 75 – HAPPINESS. Available in print and digital here.