The Belgian designer explored the specter of generative AI through wonky clothes.

If you tasked generative AI with approximating Walter Van Beirendonck spring 2024 men’s collection, among this human’s suggested list of prompts: cricket padding, blimps, cycling jerseys, frothy wedding garments, hazmat suits, bumblebees and “Where’s Waldo.”

In his show notes, the Belgian fashion maverick confessed to fascination — and terror — in the face of this accelerating technology.

“Where are the machines taking us?” he asked. “The world around us is transforming at breakneck speed and it feels like we’re being used as crash test dummies.”

One model was dressed exactly like one, ambling through a low-ceilinged, concrete space with a futuristic and dystopian glean.

While inventive, this collection did not quite reconcile all those diverse inputs into a convincing whole. The designer paraded padded tabards one minute and frilly, transparent mega shirts the next. 

His take on wide shoulders was original. Imagine an airship installed on the shoulders of your blouson or tuxedo jacket.

Hazard stripes and lightning bolts added graphic zing to clothes while shark-like shoes, with cartoonish fangs and eyeballs, looked like items Van Beirendonck’s daring followers will seek out.

For their finale, the designer sheathed his young models in dry-cleaning bags that had been spray-painted with skeletons. Some seemed to panic and struggle for breath, despite holes punched here and there in the film. Behind this unsettling spectacle was a man-made miscalculation.