By Allanah Davies
As children, we marvel at the idea of being superheroes and saving the day. We dress up in comic book costumes and play with our toy guns. Walter Van Beirendock’s FW26 may, at first, look like this type of sportive game of heroes and villains–it would not be the first time this iconic Belgian designer sent fantastical toys and creatures down the runway (one only has to think of their SS2008 ‘Sexclown’’ offering). However, like many of his whimsical designs, this offering carries a much harsher meaning beneath the fluorescent surface–this season represents the devastating march of children, fighting against war and destruction with their inefficacious plastic guns.
Fashion, nor the arts themselves, are not known for their ability to enact ceasefires or disarm weapons of war. Yet in a moment when conflict continues to erase homes, histories, and entire childhoods across the globe, Beirendock proposes a different kind of intervention, one that allows us to see the world through the eyes of a child. This FW26, Beirendock blends superhero costume characteristics with real battledress: space-buns with combat shoes, flower embellishments with biohazard symbols, and charm necklaces with nylon military vests. In the disturbing intersection of these modes of dress, Beirendock conjures a child’s attempt to fight against omnipotent army forces.
The collection opens with a striking vignette: a boy astride a motorbike fully enveloped in a bright yellow raincoat, extending beyond his body to shield the machine beneath him. The perfectly practical choice is intersected with large plush flower embellishments, suggesting a childlike wonder in the wearer. Moments later, the solitary figure calls for reinforcements and three armed models come marching behind him in fluorescent uniform. In matching t-shirts and parachute pants, each model has their own colour palette–pink, orange and green–giving the looks a ‘superhero’ like quality. The boys represent their cause by printing it in bold lettering on their t-shirts, they tell us loud and proud that they are fighting “FOR REAL YOUTH.”
Accessories emerged as some of the most affecting symbols within the collection, with bags taking on a striking–and emotional–presence. Rendered in the form of backpacks, tophandles and crossbodies, each piece was shaped into playful, creature-like forms complete with cartoonish monster teeth. The reference skewed deliberately away from novelty charm culture; this was less a Labubu bag charm, and more the oversized school backpack of a ten-year-old boy. Created in collaboration with Eastpak, the bags are distinctly childlike, almost like an imaginary friend to these boys, alone in a time of terror.
In an interview with ‘What’s Trending Tomorrow,’ Beirendock shares that the collection is “a callout for a better world.” It is a sentiment that resonates far beyond the runway. At its core, the offering imagines a future in which children are granted the luxury of innocence–where toys act simply as tools of joy, not resistance. By filtering the violence of the adult world through a child’s imagination, Beirendock does not dilute its severity; instead the contrast sharpens it. The collection leaves us with a quiet but insistent question: what would it take to build a world where childhood no longer has to double as survival.
