G-Star and Walter Van Beirendonck are taking a ballsy approach to denim with their capsule collection for spring 2025.
The lineup of 19 pieces, named “Denim With Balls,” was presented during the Belgian designer’s spring fashion show. It was a melding of Van Beirendonck’s deft craftsmanship with G-Star’s denim know-how.
The result? Raw denim garments made with minimal stitching and — instead — gluing and taping.
“At G-Star, we’re always looking for people that we call best-in-class — so the people that inspire us, that are doing something really different,” explained Gwenda van Vliet, chief marketing officer of G-Star. “Walter is a person like that.
“We love his creativity, innovation. It’s rebellious, it’s bold, it’s playful,” she continued. “When you look at the outcome, it really shows our belief that there’s no limit to what denim can do. We love to put things upside down and do things differently.”
Van Beirendonck has long been a master of that.
“When I started up, they really gave me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted,” he said. “I could have done something crazy, or something huge or big, but I really wanted to make [wearable] clothes.”
He had in mind how the fashion world is evolving, with its production shifting globally to keep prices low. But there is a discrepancy.
“There was no evolution at all in the way of making clothes,” said Van Beirendonck. “The stitching machine was always there, and it’s still there.”
Other industries’ technological revolution passed fashion by. The jeans of the future, Van Beirendonck believed, would be without stitching. So he glued and taped garments together.
“It has a very technological look, but at the same time, it’s a new way of working with craftsmanship. It is really combining these two worlds,” he said.
The capsule includes Square Jeans, Wader Jeans, Embossed Pamflet Jeans and Future Proof Jacket.
There is a 3D effect on the Cradle to Cradle certified denim, coming with embossed dots — or balls — words and text, such as the designer’s slogans “Future Proof,” “Wow” and “Stitch Less.” That’s also evident in the sweaters, sweatshirts and tops.
“I saw it as a futuristic way of producing garments with a kind of robot or machine, which is taking it over,” said Van Beirendonck. “Like that we can probably produce again in Europe. It’s really that kind of thinking: How can we do something which is more sustainable, more future-proof.”
The embossed dots helped inform the capsule’s name.
“These balls are literally on the jeans,” said Van Beirendonck, adding the name is meant to be a bit kinky.
Balls served as a leitmotif in other parts of Van Beirendonck’s spring collection, too.
“The slogans I’m using are: ‘The world explodes, and I’m dreaming. The world explodes, and I’m happy. The world explodes, and I’m dancing,’” said the designer. “It’s really that kind of double feeling. The moment that we are living in is so tough and hard, but still we have to try to be positive, happy.”
He’s had a long-standing fascination for vintage clown photos.
“I went back to that kind of mood, because I really found it very fitting with the moment we’re living in,” said Van Beirendonck. “It’s this really happy-and-sad moment, which is typically also the clown figure.”
His show’s staging channeled this dichotomy. Through the vast botanical garden hidden behind Paris’ Faculty of Pharmacy, models with clown-like attributes — think a red, pointy nose or multicolored cone-shaped party hats — walked the paths to damped-down circus tunes. But simultaneously, birds took to gleeful squawking and the sun made a surprise appearance, lifting the mood.
Van Beirendonck plied sartorial juxtapositions, such as narrow jackets and tops paired with wide pants. An azure micro bomber, with a white smiley face on its back, was worn with roomy trousers. A see-through trench-blazer with purple smileys overlaid broad orange-and-white-checked pants.
“I was searching for new silhouettes and new volumes,” the designer said. “It’s been awhile since I worked that close to the body.”
Van Beirendonck’s palette sprang from light blue and pink. The start of his show had lighter-colored garments that were darker by its close.
“Almost like a thunderstorm,” he said, explaining the last pieces were made with little stitchwork. Van Beirendonck laser-cut big bulbous shapes out of Alcantara, which fit through slits — puzzle-piece-like.