DRKSHDW by Rick Owens x Converse
TURBOWPN – online & instore
Always rich in forms and ideas, his work full of unusual color combinations and strong graphic language, Walter van Beirendonck has been issuing its own collections since 1983. Regardless of whether people dared to take him seriously or not, Walter has persisted in his tireless love for the surreal and desire to open our current reality. Now that the fashion industry is feeling the financial, social and ecological impact of their longtime decision making, more people are starting to (re)value Walter's approach and position in the fashion world.
Walter van Beirendock’s latest Fall/Winter 2020 is full of urgency. The collection show expresses various seemingly contradictory ways of resisting the outcome of our set human course. All models, decked out as rectangular goths, street protesters, protagonist of color, flower-power flippies, huggables, 70's wallpaper catalogues, sex celebrators and love fetishists, appear to be happily ignorant to the status quo and simultaneously unbelievably good looking. Taking it personal seems to be the answer.
The collection named W:A.R., which stands for “Walter: about rights”, is inspired by politics and ecology, but also the human ability to express oneself, such as through art, music and sexuality. Not wanting to jeopardise any of it, Walter has decided it needs to be clearly stated that now is the time to change the way we inhabit our planet Earth. To appreciate its unique eco-systems. To stop war and terror. And to nurture our diversity and creativity.
“It’s really a collection about having the possibility to be free to enjoy beauty. It’s really a statement about that because I think that during the last [few] years, we really have less and less freedom—everything is so sensitive.” – Walter van Beirendonk
It's a great privilege to execute the right to resist and express the way you choose to. Dress up, shout, cuddle, celebrate our sweet existence and dance dance dance.
