Walter Van Beirendonck Men’s Spring 2026: Prints and Tailoring

Walter Van Beirendonck called his spring collection “Wink — With Starry Eyes.” Despite the world’s troubled tenor today, “the whole collection has a very positive feeling,” he said, adding there’s “a kind of dandy atmosphere, but with a very punk attitude.”

It all worked to strong effect. This lineup has more patterns and elegant tailoring than ever before in a Van Beirendonck collection, who moved away from anything sporty yet kept a dynamic youthfulness to his creations.

“It’s a big clash of fabrics,” the designer said. “I’m going from high to low, from very graphical to flowers.”

There was a mash-up of camouflage, traditional English tailoring fabrics, flower prints — from Rococo to jacquards and vivid versions, red-and-white kitchen towel materials, black-and-white striped and dotted patterns, transparent cloth and Lurex. Van Beirendonck concocted some of his own prints and added smocked details.

Most looks sprang to life with three or four different fabrics, culminating in patchworks. Throughout the offer was high tailoring, with certain oversized details, such as pockets, lapels and covered buttons, like those holding together boys’ skeleton suits from the 1780s.

“You create a little bit of an alienated by making the other pieces longer or with slightly bigger details,” said Van Beirendonck, who also deconstructed certain garments.

An elongated shirt in the towel fabric came paired with a sartorial checked blazer. A boxy camo jacket was trimmed with fluffy embroidered silk, for a summer-fur effect, and atop flowery shorts.

Recurrent skull motifs had starry eyes. For jewelry, Jacqueline Lecarme reconstructed found objects, including hair rollers. Other accessories included XL aviator-inspired sunglasses, a tubular figurine-shaped handbag and straw bowler hat with paper flowers.