Walter Van Beirendonck’s Spring 2025 collection, presented in a picturesque Parisian garden, masterfully blended the designer’s signature playful aesthetics with a groundbreaking denim collaboration. The show, set against a backdrop of roses and carnations, featured models emerging from a clown car, sporting tiny party hats, colorful round noses, and exaggerated shoes. Walter Van Beirendonck‘s collection explored extremes in proportions, juxtaposing shrunken jackets with oversized trousers and mini top hats by Stephen Jones with humongous tailoring.
The highlight of the collection was the debut of “Denim With Balls,” a 19-piece capsule created in collaboration with G-Star Raw. This innovative line of denim garments was constructed using minimal stitching, instead relying on gluing and taping techniques. The denim pieces featured embossed dots, words, and slogans, creating a unique 3D effect. Walter Van Beirendonck saw this as a futuristic and more sustainable approach to garment production, with the potential to bring manufacturing back to Europe.
Throughout the collection, Walter Van Beirendonck’s designs aimed to find positivity and lightness amidst the dramatically tough times the world is facing. Clown imagery served as a representation of the duality between happiness and sadness. The color palette transitioned from light pastels to darker shades, evoking the atmosphere of a thunderstorm. Laser-cut shapes in Alcantara, resembling puzzle pieces, allowed for reduced stitching and added a distinctive design element to the garments.
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Gwenda van Vliet, chief marketing officer of G-Star, praised Walter Van Beirendonck’s creativity and innovation, stating that the collaboration showcased the limitless potential of denim. The capsule collection included standout pieces such as Square Jeans, Wader Jeans, Embossed Pamflet Jeans, and the Future Proof Jacket, all featuring the embossed “balls” motif and slogans like “Future Proof,” “Wow,” and “Stitch Less.“
Walter Van Beirendonck’s show notes conveyed his message of finding bliss in the face of adversity, with slogans like “The world explodes, and I’m dreaming. The world explodes, and I’m happy. The world explodes, and I’m dancing.” The staging of the show, with its mix of clown-like attributes and the unexpected appearance of the sun, perfectly captured this dichotomy.
© Photos : Walter Van Beirendonck