Walter Van Beirendonck’s SS24 Collection: Essential for ‘Cosmic Outsiders’

Designer Walter Van Beirendonck loves to research. That’s how he always starts.

Diving into memories, discoveries, history, art — new & old. As he works, his collection of books filled with drawings and collages becomes visualizations of what is happening inside his brain.

Embracing fresh technologies has never been something he shied away from, but researching in the era of accelerated A.I. is trippy in many ways.

This time, he stumbled upon incredibly intriguing images of DAWLEETOO. Was it a lost city? Or a fake place?

WHAT WAS REAL AND WHAT WAS SURREAL? In a way he found it shocking. But he was also curious. FASCINATED!

Where are the machines taking us? The world around us is transforming at breakneck speed and it feels like we are being used as crash test dummies.

HE CREATED AN ALIEN ALPHABET. Thinking of new pictorial characters that could be used in this mixed reality that we are now occupying.

This collection plays with hard materials for cover. Soft and vulnerable (one-)pieces underneath. Voluminous versus close-to-the-bone. Protection versus transparency. Monochromatic/Bi-coloured. Red/White – Black/Yellow.