The show notes for Walter Van Beirendonck's S/S 15 catwalk presentation warned energetically 'CCTV in Operation'. With a designer as complex as Berinedonck you could read that to mean a lot of things, but after the garments began appearing - patched tailcoats fashioned from various panels of brocade fabric in that slice and dice way Beirendonck is known for, military uniforms customised with net and wet suits and tailoring covered in paintings by experimental artist and club kid hero Scooter LaForge - it smacked of a certain nostalgia, a 1984-esque play on how soulless modern society can be. This seemed like an ode to a time when the world wasn't so visible, information wasn't so shared and people spent more time thinking and dreaming.
The mixture of costume and clothing resembled finds one might stumble upon in a rich dressing up closet, from the GI trousers and Judo belts to the traditional military garb with fringed epaulets. The whimsical effect was topped off with some fun face-paint by makeup artist Inge Grognard. As more and more looks appeared, the show began to smack of an amalgamation of all the things little boys dreams of, from the things that excite them - the outdoors, sharks and exotic animals - to the jobs they want to have - solder, fighter, surfer. There's a romance to that vision, but then Van Beirendonck's clothes are always poetic. Today, he'd furnished his models with necklaces containing a spring of real mint, an apt symbol for such a refreshing, honest collection.
