Pleasure hits sweetest after pain, and there were many pleasures at a show Walter van Beirendonck entitled “Banana Wink Boom!” this afternoon. Somewhere in a pocket or otherwise of everyone of these looks was a phone with its speaker on, playing variously Mazzy Star, Blondie, Bowie, Velvet Underground, and more. The personal soundtracks hung around each look as their wearers walked gingerly past—there was much confusion about the route through this show—and occasionally stepped dazedly out of each other’s way.
Sometimes the models were asked to make statements to the audience; mostly they were too shy to speak up enough for them to be audible (plus this was not in the job description). I did catch “I feel love.” And you kind of did.
Walter’s heavily suggestive absurdist designs mix the sexual with the surreal in often hilarious ways. His orifice knits, clawed boots, baroque gimp masks, paper-doll tailoring, hip-hole belting, and alien conspiracy motifs all came together in a highly entertaining collection. Stephen Jones collaborated with gusto, adding a knitting yarn goldilocks headpiece and hyper-sized baseball caps and ushankas.
The penultimate cratered bomber from which Louise Bourgeois-y spider limbs projected was especially creepy. The crowd here—many of them specific to the designer—adored it, loudly, as the auteur walked much more assuredly than his bewildered models. This felt like Walter non plus ultra.