Walter Van Beirendonck Mens F/W 12.13 Paris

[WilhelmF]

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[WilhelmF]

PARIS, January 21, 2012
By Tim Blanks

Lust never sleeps. The title Walter Van Beirendonck gave his new show acknowledged the durability of our baser instincts. The clothes he made to accompany that acknowledgement won't be matched on any other catwalk this season. Their combination of cartoonish joie de vivre and deeply sinister subtext was unsettling, a reaction that WVB has effortlessly courted throughout his career, as anyone who had the pleasure of seeing his recent career retrospective in Antwerp will know.

The collection was based around a literal face-off between masks: the kind that warriors in Papua, New Guinea, or voodoo high priests in the Caribbean paint on, and the leather kind that Western fetishists wear in big-city sex clubs. Van Beirendonck's standard cast of African models wore these masks, most of them in an Elastoplast pink that was like a parody of Caucasian skin. He insisted that was simply because he liked the contrast, but the effect was profoundly disturbing.

And maybe it's just because Van Beirendonck makes you think such thoughts, but it was hard to resist the idea that his sleekly civilized tailored suits were also a mask for a whole repertoire of beastly impulses. Lust never sleeps, remember. The designer certainly was full-on with his fetish references—not just the masks, but full-body leather waders, fluffy mohairs, and pointy little details such as the black rubber padlock around one model's neck or the tiny tufts of fur that defined the fingernails on a candy-colored leather body glove. One set of waders, in leaf green leather, was worn over a jacket, shirt, and bow tie that matched. This outfit seemed particularly worthy of a psycho/sociological fashion analysis for the way in which propriety was restrained. The fact that it was all in cartoony colors hardly diminished its force. In fact, it simply highlighted the fact that the collection was a natural heir to Vivienne Westwood's SEX shop or Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, two other instances of cartoon antics masking a lethal assault on the everyday. Stepping outside the Espace Commines into a drizzly Saturday morning, it was instantly, sadly obvious that the everyday will never, ever know what had hit it.

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[WilhelmF]

Some detail shots.

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[Scott]

well its definitely what one would expect from walter and i do admire that he remains true to his aesthetic and defiant of fashion rules and ideals. and there are some good pieces here....those poncho/anorak-style coats are really quite cool.

 

[andrew]

this would make for a great masquerade outfit. I don't mean that flippantly either. I wonder if those things ever get produced.

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

those suits are so cool

 

[Salvatore]

Terrified.
Honestly.

 

[Phuel]

^^^Absolutely!

Very much impressed with Walter's skills here-- both as a tailor, stylish provocateur, and great showman. He's succeeded both in terrifying and delighting me with his imagery of this new man: The color palette is beautiful and elegant, but the combination of a caricature of the classic Englishman in bowler hat and walking stick in a futuristic Michael Myer-meets-tribesman ceremonial mask is genuinely startling. (Are the masks designed by Patrick Ian Hartley?) It's so perfect and rich in its primitive-meets-modern cultural reference. I love it.

On a purely superficial fashion note, those very classic Savile Row suits with the tribal overlay are supreme. Unlike the current CDG Shirt collection, Walter's use of overlays is so rich in context and contrast, and so NOT lazy.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

i like it, so cool!

 

[Donatello89]

I hate masks, but I have to admit this is really creative, crazy even. colors contrast with structured and geometric outlines (for the 1st pieces)

 

[BerlinRocks]

i really loooove the trompe loeil tuxedo. its like you always carry a mini-me or a ventriloquist doll on you... funny!
not sure i would wear them all, but the green and orange (i have a serious issue with orange lately, im starting liking it> worried) are nice.

i like the techno tribal mask (would love to have them for a party!) and the final coats are very very good!!!!!

the only thing i dont like are those fishermen techno looks.

 

[TianCouture]

I love WVB...it's almost as if some of the sweaters have kabuki faces on them, esp. the green one in #2.

The collection evokes a lot of emotions, the race card (black model's in what I guess you can call "caucasian" colored masks and leather elbow length gloves), the psycho-killer hockey mask/sadomasochist slave mask's by way of English dandies. Even the 4th suit looks like skinned flesh. A little gross, but it looks like tissue/muscle under the the epidermis...there is a lot to be said for this collection

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

His collections are also becoming a gimmick, pastel suits with a little twist....He used to create the most deranged clothes of the mens fashion week a decade ago