WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK | AW 26–27: SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW

We have always admired the avant-garde spirit of Walter Van Beirendonck, and for the Autumn-Winter 2026–27 season, he invites us directly into his mind. Below, we present his words in its purest form—a haunting, poetic narrative of youth, Art Brut, and the modern “Scarecrows” of our time. It is fashion as un cri du cœur.

The SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW

I have always felt like an outsider in this industry.

I’m not complaining. It’s a place from which you can look at things differently.
This season, I delved back into my deep love for Art Brut and Outsider Art.
I turned to the work of André Robillard, who has spent most of his life in psychiatric hospitals
making guns out of scraps: wood, tape, found objects. Something about that moves me deeply.
An urgency and a complete disregard for what is expected or accepted.
The parallels with childhood. That unfiltered way of thinking.
Morphing your feelings into drawings, words, objects, clothes.
The freedom before self-consciousness sets in.
Youth, in its truest form, is something I want to hold onto forever.

As pure hope. Raw energy.
My new collection reflects this.

The tension between aggression and tenderness runs through everything.
I made my own plastic artillery, but it’s mixed with flowers.
3D Birds, guns, blooms — they can be removed, rearranged, recombined.

A vocabulary of contradiction.

Captivated by war carpets that are keepsakes of stories that need retelling,
I knitted memories into patterns. Tape is used as material, as a marker.
I became fascinated by covers: the protective sheets placed over sculptures,
over furniture, over things we want to preserve. That gesture of hiding and revealing.
In the collection, covers become garments. Bodies moving underneath.
Utilitarian smocks outlining EASTPAK backpacks.

Fine tailoring meets technical fabrics. British wools combined with nylon and plastic.
The colours are more restrained than before, a palette pulled through, ton sur ton.
Less clash, more intention. But you can go crazy with combinations.
Sleeves can go on/of, the belts can change the volume completely.

T-shirts form the backbone.
Some of them ask: HI THERE, ARE YOU FR?

There is a tendency now to dismiss the new generations. But they are the truth.
Even when the world tells them otherwise. Youth for real.
Puk Puk returns. A signal to the fans. We’re still here. Keep going.
I have called this collection SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW.

Perhaps because a scarecrow stands alone, assembled from whatever is at hand, trying to look human.

Subcultures, as we once knew them, have disappeared.
What you see here are the Scarecrows of 2026.
A way of describing the youth of today, before we lose them unnamed.

X X X WALTER

AUTUMN-WINTER 2026–27
SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW

MAKE-UP BY JENNEKE CROUBELS & TEAM
HAIR BY CHARLIE LE MINDU & TEAM
MUSIC BY HANTRAX
COLLABORATION WITH EASTPAK
HATS BY STEPHEN JONES
SUNGLASSES BY KOMONO
LATEX BY LINDA VAN WEL
3D PRINTS BY ANTI-STATIC
NIU SCOOTER BY VO’LOC

SHOW PRODUCTION BY MARK VANDEBROECK
COPYWRITING BY DOMINIQUE NZEYIMANA
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY PAUL BOUDENS
VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO DIRK VAN SAENE
THANKS TO THE FANTASTIC W-TEAM:

DORRITH, EIKO, EZIO, LIEKE, LIONEL, MARLOUS, MEHDI, OSCAR, PAUL, SUSAN

INTERNATIONAL PRESS
BIG BV, ANTWERP
PRESS@WALTERVANBEIRENDONCK.COM

SHOW PRESS

TOTEM – KUKI DE SALVERTES & SÉBASTIEN DE BRITO
SEBASTIEN@TOTEMFASHION.COM
MOBILE +33 7 6172 7660

FOR SHOWROOM APPOINTMENTS (PARIS, 22 TO 26 JANUARY 2026)

PLEASE CONTACT:
SUSAN DE GROOT

SUSAN@WALTERVANBEIRENDONCK.COM
MOBILE +32 470 442 938

AUTUMN-WINTER 2026–27
SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW

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