Walter Van Beirendonck chose an “electric eye” theme for his spring collection with – as is the Belgian maverick’s custom – many surprising twists. His penchant for constructing and deconstructing fashion remained evident, as he sent down the runway a variety of quirky ensembles.
The show opened with well-crafted suits, which were sober save for the overlay of an asymmetric, amorphic panel with bright cartoony characters. Prints became more integral to each successive look, first on the wide, cuffed trousers, then spangling the shirts and even blazers. (Imagine a riot of checked and dotted jacquards.)
As peepers were the leitmotif, they popped up in googly forms and often — on latex see-through T-shirts, as cutouts on blazers (that took the forms of creatures’ faces) and even on numerous Stephen Jones-created hats dramatically – and beautifully – emblazoned with multihued feathers.
