Dear Shaded Viewers,
Walter van Beirendonck’s show, titled “Banana Wink Boom!” delivered a delightful mix of pleasures amid moments of confusion. Each model carried a personal soundtrack, featuring Mazzy Star, Blondie, Bowie, Velvet Underground, and more. While some models hesitated to speak, one confidently declared, “I feel love.”
The designs, blending the sexual and surreal, showcased orifice knits, clawed boots, baroque gimp masks, paper-doll tailoring, hip-hole belting, and alien conspiracy motifs. Collaborating with Stephen Jones, the collection featured oversized headpieces that were totally amusing.
In his own words:
“I played a Frankensteinian art game with my own mind. ‘Cadavre Exquis’ is also known as a collage of consequences. Where tops & bottoms are playing telephone. Fittingly clashing.
I found new holes and loops and hooked up tubes to the deeply Belgian DNA of surrealism, tapping into an absurdist way of designing.
BANANA WINK BOOM!
It means everything and nothing at all. I felt enormous freedom in zapping these beautiful monsters to life.
All the clothes from the collection are brand-new,
But to underline this random way of creating I went back to some of the styling and make-up I did 30 years ago for the W.&L.T. shows, using hats realised by Stephen Jones and accessories from my archive.
I invite you to experience more freedom / less automation. Ready yourself for a new era of fetishism. Plug yourself into this pleasure portal, please. Just reach into my tunnels.
Like David Bowie, I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.
As I pieced all these fragments together, I saw nothing but beauty.
XXX
WALTER
