The mentorship kicked off with a screening of Walter Van Beirendonck’s SS 25 fashion show, showcasing his distinctive style with blooming silhouettes and playful details. The students were suitably stunned, finally realizing who was sitting at the desk in front of them.
Walter Van Beirendonck’s inaugural lesson as Mentor for the Master in Fashion Design was a meeting between minds. The class was attentive and curious while their mentor took them on a journey through his fashion history, answered their questions and took part in a dynamic exchange throughout the students’ personal presentations.
The designer shared his journey, from his early fascination with fashion as a boy in rural Belgium to becoming a pivotal member of the Antwerp Six. After an initial admission hiccup, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, alongside future icons like Martin Margiela and Dries Van Noten. This is where the group that would become the iconic Antwerp Six met, made up of six designers from different parts of Belgium, whose friendship was the foundation for them to work and explore the world together. In 1986, they took their work to London for the British Designers Show, catching the attention of buyers and journalists, dubbing them ‘The Antwerp Six’ due to the challenge of pronouncing their names. It soon became synonymous with their collective impact on fashion.
Van Beirendonck’s career trajectory took him from London’s fashion scene back to Antwerp, where he became a longtime educator at his alma mater. From 1985, he turned his focus to men’s fashion, aiming to challenge conventions and inject youth culture into the field. His work on volumes and designs that challenge gender norms coincided with the rise of street fashion, positioning him at the forefront of a revolution in menswear. Throughout his career, Van Beirendonck has balanced his own collections with commercial projects and collaborations, consistently pushing the boundaries of fashion design.
STUDENTS MEET THEIR MENTOR
For his first lesson at Polimoda, Walter Van Beirendonck sat down with his students for a candid and unprecedented Q&A, reflecting on the challenges of breaking through in the early stages of a career, balancing creative vision with commercial expectations, politics and AI.
What do you expect from your students? What qualities do you value most in young designers? – Emily Gerleit
I expect my students to be drawing, to be getting better and doing their best. I want to get to know my students, to “learn” them and to understand what the student is standing for. That way, I can interfere, get in their heads, and guide them. The most valuable thing for a designer is to have a strong force and a strong synergy. Studying and school is the basis for a student’s future, so it’s really important in this time at Polimoda to go as deep and as far as possible.
How did you navigate the early stages of your career, and what strategies would you recommend for building a lasting career in today’s evolving fashion landscape? – Andrea Di Giulio
I don’t believe in strategies, you can of course have a plan, but you cannot have a strategy, this is what a big commercial company has. You have to give [your career] time and let it evolve. You should have the right content within your work to be selected at the right moment and with the right portfolio. You have to have patience.
What was the most challenging part of breaking into the fashion industry for you? How did you overcome that? – Valentina Sanes
To start up and to get out of Belgium. It is very ambitious to start up somewhere but even in the toughest moments there are always things to rely on. People are the most important thing; I always rely on people when it’s a difficult moment. Even now, my clothes aren’t anonymous, people are talking to them. I like to create conversation through clothes, it’s more than just a garment.
Have you ever faced a creative block or had trouble finding inspiration for a design? How did you overcome it? – Claudia Abellaneda
When you are starting out you have to gather enough fuel. You have to force it and you have to come up with your ideas. At the end of the process, the quietest moment is just before the fashion show, when you have to start thinking already about the next ideas and the stuff to do, then you have to add and add, so no, there’s no creative block.
How do you find a balance between your artistic vision and the commercial aspects of the fashion industry? – Emily Gerleit
It’s important to find the right balance between these two things. You can be very artistic on one side but in the end it has to be sold, produced and consumed. These are all steps which are important in the fashion world. Fashion is not art. Art is very different: an art piece doesn’t have to be involved with the body or worn, that’s why fashion is interesting. It’s important to find a good balance. It’s important to be brave and keep on living as yourself.
What was the best thing for you about working with five other people? Would you recommend a collective or individual approach to those who want to enter today’s world of fashion? – Denise Sellitti
We were just friends sticking together, it wasn’t all work. It was also not planned, it was spontaneous. You have to plan to do something together, and that’s the big difference. In our case, suddenly there were 6 designers coming from Belgium and no one had heard of Belgium. Working together with other people can also be a challenge, to keep the balance as different individuals and different creative people.
Is there room for individuality in the future fashion industry, which could be based on AI (swarm intelligence)? – Julia Kneip
Nowadays people recognize artificial and non artificial images, but I am sure in the future they will not and we should be prepared for this. We don’t know how we are going to handle this. At the moment, I don’t use AI because I don’t think I need it to get my vision.
Do you believe fashion should be political? If so, what responsibility does a designer have to address social issues? – Emily Gerleit
I am political. I think it is important. Every person with the possibility to talk with an audience has to stand up for political things and be political. There are people who are afraid to do it, to lose money. Designers working for fashion houses cannot be political so if you have the possibility, you should do it. You are not alone in changing the world, you can’t solve all the problems, but you can talk about it and get people to realize. It makes you more powerful. Audiences respect you for it too, they respond to you if they feel it comes from the heart. Everything that you do should come from the heart, and not from marketing.
STUDENTS
Master in Fashion Design
- Claudia Abellaneda Royo
- Devanshu Bawa
- Tzuf Ben David
- Andrea Di Giulio
- Isabella Echeverria
- Haitong Gao
- Emelie Simone Elfriede Gerleit
- Anastasiia Ivanova
- Joyna Kishore Jeswani
- Julia Anna Katharina Kneip
- Radhika Kulwal
- Jiayi Li
- Ruoxi Li
- Chen Lingxin
- Yiyue Liu
- Yannik Pelzl
- Juliana Pouroulis
- Jyothsna Viji Ramaiah
- Luna Rech
- Valentina Sanes
- Denise Sellitti
- Elenda Timaj
- Yuri Ueda
- Xintong Xie
- Sining Zhang
