He is aggressively brutal in photos, and utterly charming in person, with an attentive look in his blue eyes and a soft smile. A good educator, according to students. Unfortunately, in this case, strict pension regulations sent him to a well-deserved, but not yet welcome rest. The presentation and signing of two books by the legend of Antwerp Fashion, a bright star of the ‘Antwerp Six’, the long-time director of the Fashion Academy Walter Van Beirendonck took place at the MoMu Antwerp Fashion Museum.

We learnt that the future fashion designer was brought up in a boarding school from the age of 12 (he does not blame his parents for this – many working people did the same). The atmosphere alien to the creative boy forced him to go into his own world – to draw. Walter learnt about the Fashion Academy from a Dutch magazine. It is his ‘Antwerp Six’ to make the Academy world-famous and desirable. In the first year he was not admitted. Providence was preparing him for the course where Dries Van Noten and Dirk Van Saene would be. Incidentally, in his 1st year he would study with Martin Margiela.

One of Van Beirendonck’s favourite artists was and is the provocative American Paul McCarthy (without the ‘n’, so not to be confused with the Beatles). His influence on the designer is obvious: to talk about exciting issues in an epathetic way. At the moment, one of Walter’s tormenting points is that, like 100 and 200 years ago, we create fashion with ‘stitches’, i.e. needle and thread. He is working on a seamless, laser or glue created suit for the twenty-first century. This is his 2025 collection, whose main characters are ‘clowns’. Which we saw in the video presentation.

Walter Van Beirendonck is full of energy and plans, teaching in Florence at Polimoda. Both of his books published by Hannibal Books (how could he choose another publisher), one a collection of his sketches for collections, the other his collages, – art objects (priced the same).