The Brutalist dungeon-like vibe of today’s runway show location clearly highlighted Walter Van Beirendonck’s intentions for this collection. In a world of superfast innovation, it’s not often we stop to consider what the potential side effects are. Initial worries about AI eventually outsmarting us and overthrowing the human race have been replaced with excitement about the possibilities of apps like chatGPT.
“The world around us is transforming at breakneck speed, and it feels like we are being used as crash test dummies,” the show notes read, nodding to the crash dummy symbols printed on the collection’s skin-tight suits and hats. Printed text reading “stop terrorizing our world” further hinted at Van Beirendonck’s concerns about new tech and the people who might misuse it. It’s a slogan he’s employed in the past, including in a fall 2015 response to the terrorist attacks in Paris.
The collection was named Dawleetoo after a lost jungle city in a jungle where an explorer from the late 1800s was rumored to have disappeared. Much is unknown about its settlements. Van Beirendonck created a dream world in which machines and humans live together simultaneously, designing looks for individual characters that would exist in this new unknown reality.
Alien motifs mixed with various symbols to create what Van Beirendonck described as an “alien alphabet print” with the appearance of a hieroglyphic. Yellow and white were featured extensively across the collection, colors we associate with danger and safety. The Walter-isms included sunglasses with artificial noses, crocodile-painted shoes (this time with a pointier silhouette), W-caps, and body-hugging tops with bright prints.
Van Beirendonck has an uncanny ability to transport people to new worlds, making them question their current reality and consider wider social problems. “There are so many issues in the world right now, from wars to financial crashes and an uncertain future. I really wanted to start a conversation about these things,” he said.
