That Antwerp is a vibrant, influential fashion city is nothing new. Common knowledge, in a way. Even though it counts a population of only around 565,000. And yet, or maybe precisely because of that, each time something genuinely new happens here, it feels particularly thrilling to watch. Last weekend was one of those moments: the first edition of the Antwerp Fashion Festival. For three days, the entire city turned into a cultural hub on another level, with runway shows, exhibitions, installations and events…everything a true fashion city could wish for. Here, on day two, our representative Johanna Erdl had the chance to talk to one of the most legendary Belgian creative minds: Walter Van Beirendonck.
We meet the fashion designer at Gallery Sofie van de Velde on Léon Stynenstraat. It’s the day after he presented his long-awaited Anniversary Show, 40 Years of Dreaming the World Awake, a major retrospective spanning his beginnings at the Royal Academy of Antwerp in the ’80s all the way to his latest designs: the characteristic, comic-like ‘W’ stitched to hats. Loud prints on shirts, shorts and blazers, theatrical silhouettes, soft elements like flowers breaking up this colourful interpretation of modern style. Statement slogans, masks, and a lot of well-staged humour. All the things we’ve learned to love him for. The gallery where we not-so-accidentally run into him is also home to the accompanying exhibition, created to give Van Beirendonck’s life’s work a physical home: sketches with bold, colourful lines, expressive silhouettes, looks from the past four decades, ideas that maybe never made it to the runway. Drawings that had never been shown before, now on the walls as the true witnesses of how a collection comes to life. Of Van Beirendonck’s mind, even.
Another thing that’s common knowledge: Van Beirendonck belongs to the fashion elite. As part of the renowned Antwerp Six, alongside Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Marina Yee and Dirk Van Saene, he significantly influenced the course of the fashion industry, not only in the city but in the whole of Belgium. His radical, playful, honest design language is instantly recognizable, and he has always actively addressed the social phenomena and questions lingering in the air.
In many ways, he was the highlight of this first edition of the festival. So, while he strolled around the gallery, talking to guests, chatting, laughing, celebrating his anniversary show, Erdl pulled him aside for a relaxed conversation about Antwerp, the vulgarity of money, about sketches, about AI and about where to get the best waffles.
JOHANNA ERDL Congratulations on the show! It was amazing.
WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK Thank you, thank you. You enjoyed it?
JE Yes, it was really, really impressive. I’m honoured to have attended. To accompany the show, you’re also doing this art exhibition. Can you tell me a bit about the sketches that are showcased there?
WVB Well, the sketches are not like artworks for me. They’re really my working tool. I start mostly with research and scrapbooks, that’s the first step. Then come the fabrics. Once I know what I want to do, I start to sketch these kinds of drawings.
JE Ah, cool!
WVB While drawing, I also decide the styling, the accessories, the makeup immediately. Everything is decided on the drawings. If you compare them with the looks from the final shows, you’ll see that they are really similar.
JE It’s really close. Really interesting to see. You graduated from the Royal Academy here in 1980. How has Antwerp evolved as a fashion city since then?
WVB I think in the ’90s it became extremely important as a fashion metropolis. Because it was very new, there was no fashion at all in Belgium when we started. It was really nice to see it evolve and become a relevant city in this industry. But over the years, I think it lost a little bit of its soul. I hope that with projects like the Antwerp Fashion Festival, the ideas come back. The quality is there.
JE What has impressed you about the festival so far?
WVB Honestly, I haven’t seen that much yet.
JE You were probably really busy with your own preparations.
WVB Yeah, until yesterday we were working really intensively on that. So far, I’ve enjoyed the installation from Christophe Coppens a lot, the one he did in the tower. I’m going to see more tomorrow.
JE Do you have any recommendations for people visiting Antwerp?
WVB Eat waffles.
JE Of course.
WVB They are very good on the Nationalestraat. Van Hecke, I think it’s called. A very, very nice waffle place.
JE Good to know. Quick question: what is a fashion trend you hate right now, and one you love?
WVB Oh, that’s not an easy one. Hate is such a strong word. But I’m a little disappointed by the big houses and how they are playing the game today. How they are pushing away the other designers. It’s the power of money, and it’s so dominant, in these houses, in the magazines, on the internet. I think it’s rather vulgar how it works. If you hear that the last Gucci show on Times Square cost something like 10 million dollars… it’s really vulgar.
JE But looking at the festival, it’s really nice to see what you can do without those kinds of budgets. The small designers here in Antwerp coming up.
WVB Yeah. I mean, I was showing that my whole career. I was on a roller coaster, going up and down. Sometimes I didn’t have money to make collections, but I made them one way or another. With creativity you can do a lot. That should be a good example. My show was all about creativity, because it’s the most important ingredient of fashion. And that’s what we have to keep alive.
JE Your show had amazing feedback. Talking to people here, and to the students from the academy, they really appreciated seeing the reminiscence, and the contrast with the new work. Do you have any advice for young students?
WVB Keep going and keep believing. Because it’s a tough thing. If you want to start your own thing, it’s more difficult than ever. But on the other hand, there are new possibilities too, especially with social media and everything that is happening here in Antwerp. The world is widening rather easily for young people. So just keep going.
JE Creating, creating, creating.
WVB And hoping it happens one day.
JE Never lose hope. Last question: if you had to design a collection for an alien today, what would the first piece be?
WVB I do it all the time, actually. That’s not a difficult question. There will be an alien somewhere, for sure. We come in peace. Look at my sketches, for example, here I’m being taken away by a spaceship (points). Or here, the alien hands (points to another one). It’s nothing new to me.
JE It’s so nice to see that you make your creativity available to everyone. Thank you for your time!
WVB My pleasure.