Paging all ravers, clubbers, and latex lovers: This season, as part of OC's year of Belgium, we are stocking a selection of limited-edition archival pieces from W<, Walter Van Beirendonck's now defunct 90s women's and menswear line. Words cannot express the amazingness of these pieces. Sold to Europe's club kids in only limited production runs from 1993–1999, W< pieces are now beyond #rare. On Walter's recommendation, we tapped Melbourne-based store dot.COMME and London's House of Liza for a curated collection of pieces, now available at OC stores in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
And now for some knowledge. Below, House of Liza's Gonçalo Velosa inducts us into the world of W<, and to the left, dot.COMME's Octavius La Rosa (possibly the world's leading expert on W<) documents the brand's seminal runway shows. More on each piece in the captions below.
Select archival W< pieces are now for sale at our New York, Los Angeles, and London stores. Please call Sisi at (646) 942-5181 for more information and to find out about phone orders! | Shop mainline Walter Van Beirendonck men's and women's.
"Walter is a romantic. Even though he often works with tragic themes, the result is always positive. I love his work because it is Walter’s world. In that sense it is unique—there are no trends. Walter is on a constant search for new kinds of beauty, and, in his world, he his willing to go beyond the “normal” human body.
The 1993–1999 collections for W< expressed a crucial understanding of the future “now.” Integrating multidisciplinary design and new technologies, the innovative W< fashion world went beyond clothes. Many of the practices that we take for granted today, like chatting online with a designer, the social community around a fashion brand, or even the live-streaming of fashion shows were introduced by Walter during the W< period. That was the future. Kiss the future!"
—Gonçalo
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"This shirt is from Walter's “Sex Clown” collection. Its point of departure was a virtual world, in which avatar people can control their appearance. On the runway, men wore knitted burkas, corsets, and even bras complete with papier-maché masks with phalluses, playing with the ideas of gender imposed on us by society." –Gonçalo (Images by Matthew Kelly)
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A Fall '96 tee printed with Puk Puk, the W< mascot: "Walter is hugely inspired by aliens. Puk Puk, an alien, was the mascot throughout W<. Puk Puk means crocodile in Papua New Guinean (Walter was also inspired by tribal cultures)." –Octavius
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"This coat is from Fall/Winter 1998. It was Walter's second-to-last collection. It's got zippers which reveal the mesh lining underneath and a face on the sleeve that's actually a watch. Walter was always into technology. And the label inside is great; it has a list of the coat's features, written under the slogan Finally available in this galaxy. This collection was very fairytale-like and he used all these prosthetics, like pixie ears and horns." —Octavius
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And now for some knowledge. Below, House of Liza's Gonçalo Velosa inducts us into the world of W<, and to the left, dot.COMME's Octavius La Rosa (possibly the world's leading expert on W<) documents the brand's seminal runway shows. More on each piece in the captions below.
Select archival W< pieces are now for sale at our New York, Los Angeles, and London stores. Please call Sisi at (646) 942-5181 for more information and to find out about phone orders! | Shop mainline Walter Van Beirendonck men's and women's.
"Walter is a romantic. Even though he often works with tragic themes, the result is always positive. I love his work because it is Walter’s world. In that sense it is unique—there are no trends. Walter is on a constant search for new kinds of beauty, and, in his world, he his willing to go beyond the “normal” human body.
The 1993–1999 collections for W< expressed a crucial understanding of the future “now.” Integrating multidisciplinary design and new technologies, the innovative W< fashion world went beyond clothes. Many of the practices that we take for granted today, like chatting online with a designer, the social community around a fashion brand, or even the live-streaming of fashion shows were introduced by Walter during the W< period. That was the future. Kiss the future!"
—Gonçalo
"This shirt is from Walter's “Sex Clown” collection. Its point of departure was a virtual world, in which avatar people can control their appearance. On the runway, men wore knitted burkas, corsets, and even bras complete with papier-maché masks with phalluses, playing with the ideas of gender imposed on us by society." –Gonçalo (Images by Matthew Kelly)
A Fall '96 tee printed with Puk Puk, the W< mascot: "Walter is hugely inspired by aliens. Puk Puk, an alien, was the mascot throughout W<. Puk Puk means crocodile in Papua New Guinean (Walter was also inspired by tribal cultures)." –Octavius
"This coat is from Fall/Winter 1998. It was Walter's second-to-last collection. It's got zippers which reveal the mesh lining underneath and a face on the sleeve that's actually a watch. Walter was always into technology. And the label inside is great; it has a list of the coat's features, written under the slogan Finally available in this galaxy. This collection was very fairytale-like and he used all these prosthetics, like pixie ears and horns." —Octavius