In 1997, Irish rock band U2 embarked on a world tour of their ninth studio album, Pop. Hitting all seven continents, the group’s styling was under the watchful, zany eye of Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck. Throughout the tour, Bono was frequently photographed in a Walter Van Beirendonck muscle tee—no, not a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, but a skin-tight long-sleeved top with a bulging torso printed onto it—and his signature wrap-around shades. This is kind of Van Beirendonck’s thing: creative collaborations that are pulpy with a purpose. Macho, always, but with a wink. “Working with Bono on the PopMart tour was like going to another level,” he tells V. “When you are really working together with somebody strong, it gives you many awakenings. You can do more than you can actually do by yourself. That’s what I like about collaboration.”

Collaboration has been a priority for Van Beirendonck ever since he was a young punk at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Alongside fashion mainstays like Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeule- meester, he was part of the infamous design troupe, the Antwerp Six. From his work with hypebeast behemoths Dover Street Market and Comme des Garcons to international lifestyle brands like IKEA and, most recently, G-Star, the cartoonish tastemaker’s Midas touch is unmissable. Even through some more corporate-leaning projects, Van Beirendonck has managed to comment on the state of the world through his colorful designs in an approachable yet thought-provoking way. Everything he touches—and recruits others to touch, too—turns to bold.

The mise-en-scene as we chat with him over Zoom from his Antwerp studio communicates the playful giant’s dual sensibility in an almost per- fect way. To his right, a bright doll and trinket collection. To his left, a “beautiful garden”. At the center, Van Beirendonck; a burly Belgian with a 30-year long beard and a hardcore, furrowed-brow that breaks every so often to reveal a cuddly (and mischievous) boyish inner mind.

“Humor in my collections is important to keep a good balance,” he says, referring to his storied oeuvre. “Also to keep it light because a lot of the topics I’m approaching are rather heavy. I’m talking about war, I’m talking about peace, I’m talking about problems, but I do it in a colorful way, with slogans and humor.” Van Beirendonck’s collection titles are incredibly outre, from SEXCLOWN (Summer 2008) to BANANA WINK BOOM (Fall/Winter 2024). This February, in cahoots with the denim demi- god, G-Star, Van Beirendonck released Denim With Balls, a distinctly sculptural, all-denim collection with no stitching. Yes, no stitching.

For this project, G-Star gave Van Beirendonck their blessing to do whatever he wanted with their fabrics. “We truly believe in this ‘carte blanche’ idea because it always leads to unexpected outcomes,” Gwenda van Vliet, G-Star RAW’s Chief Creative Officer, tells us. “We bring our denim expertise, collaborators from different areas of expertise bring theirs—and that is where the magic happens.” Like Van Beirendonck, G-Star loves a creative partner. From master milliner Stephen Jones coming in with a 12-layered raw denim bucket hat to furniture designer Maarten Baas creating a life-sized private jet made of recycled jeans, van Vliet says, “It’s all a result of offering our denim expertise as a starting point and asking that simple question: ‘What would you (like to) do?’”

For Van Beirendonck, the answer was to redefine the way we put clothes together—which, for the past two centuries, has been mostly thread. “It’s really old fashioned—that kind of stitching machine with the yarn and the thread,” he says, expressing his particular frustration. “Looking back to the 60s, there were suddenly things happening with fashion designers like Courreges and Cardin making rubber garments that you easily could make short. (Pieces that) were formed, but not really stitched. I hoped that something like that would happen over the years, but really, the stitching machine just moved around to keep prices down, and the technology is not really evolving.”

The result, which showed at Paris Fashion Week this past September, was exactly that—clothes held together not just by stitching, but by gluing, embossing, and taping—infused with Van Beirendonck’s splashy color preferences and avant-garde tailoring. “If anyone has been challenging the norm in the industry, it’s him,” van Vlien says. The collection will hit stores in February and, until then, Van Beirendonck is working on his own brand’s collection and keeping his DMs open for an olfactory opportunity. “Still waiting for a perfume project,” he says, brimming with chaotic fragrance ideas. “Hopefully, one day.”

Denim with Balls is available now via G-Star Raw.

This story appears in the pages of V152: now available for purchase!

Photography Paul Kooiker for G-Star RAW