Design Aesthetics of Walter Van Beirendonck

Abstract

Walter Van Beirendonck expresses a fairy tale world of perverted sexual desire of sadism and masochism, violence, and aggressiveness that breaks from a transient one-time concept as is an essential element of fashion. This study classifies the aesthetic characteristic shown on the design of Walter Van Beirendonck and analyzes the intent of his symbolism and meaning. The attempt has a meaning in exploring a new directionality of fashion by conveying a critical message to this end, contemporary fashion breaks down boundaries with artistic genre and connects a problematic consciousness that exists in life with fashion. The results of study on the aesthetic characteristics of Walter Van Beirendonck are as follows. First, Beirendonck emphasized an interpersonal image about body by giving a question through the deconstruction of image on a perfect body into race, age, and body based on body modification. Second, fetishism appeared as a consciousness that human identity and character can be changed by connecting a fetish element of sexual identity, and sadism and masochism with fashion`s imagination. Third, infantilism as an amusement expression of the form metaphorically satirized life of modern people. Fourth, makeup shown on performance or festival of an African tribe was used in the way of mixture or reuse for ethnography to obtain inspiration from ethnography. Fifth, pop art combined a popular culture code as amusement through mass production and mass media. Aesthetics of Beirendonck do not have norm and are bold in using form, color, pattern, print, and styling because Beirendonck reinterpreted critical attitudes about essential problems that human life entails into a motif of his symbolic meaning in amusement. In regards to his design aesthetics, Beirendonck expanded fashion to the scope of Gesamtkunstwerk in a consistent and continued theme combined with philosophical creativity and differentiated from other fashion designers.