Walter Van Beirendonck

Walter Van Beirendonck SS16 "Electric Eye" Blazer. Designers that take a strong course of political activism within their work are scarce. As an artist, a sense of social responsibility is inherited when one has the privilege of carrying the megaphone. When it comes to fashion, expressing a designer's political agenda may result in harsh public rejection or controversy, which may be counter intuitive to a label's commercial interests, but yet as a notable designer a platform is open to convey their creative manifestations of what they please to the public. Walter Van Beirendonck, the father of Belgian fashion, remarkably doesn't come short of expressing his political beliefs but uses allusions and metaphors usually in a form of new fictitious characters season to season. "Electric Eye" derives from Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" and a Judas Priest song of the same title which references Orwell's "1984". For the SS16 season Walter conjures a character with a single eye on a black thundercloud signifying the current state of creeping surveillance, the "Big Brother". Said creature was plastered on elastic materials and cotton tops, accompanied with Walter's signature grand and madly extravagant expressions of patterns, hats, colours and cuts. The collection featured patterns typically resembling wallpaper of a pediatrician's waiting lobby or a Scholastic book fair poster. These patterns, according to Walter, are a stark contrast to the dark suits that were presented on the runway -- a visual statement which represents mankind's liberation from the ominous overseeing obumbration; The 'black clouds', the "Electric Eye". 8/10 condition, some mild stains in the inside of the blazer. Size 48.