When the world grows dark, Walter Van Beirendonck responds with glittering defiance. His Spring/Summer 2026 collection is a manifesto for stubborn optimism, a riotous, time-bending pilgrimage where childlike wonder clashes with razor-sharp craft.

The starting point is simple: the unbroken spirit of a boy who still believes. But this is no naive fantasy. Van Beirendonck grafts stars onto eye-sockets, armors hope in surrealism, and stitches together fragments of history and fantasy. Artists’ smocks, stained with the ghosts of creative acts, meet 18th-century skeleton suits. Anna Piaggi’s fearless clash of references echoes in puckered silks and smocked volumes that shimmer with chaotic intention.

Everything is swollen with meaning: oversized buttons, cavernous pockets, cuffs that swallow wrists. Featherweight silks fray into collars that resemble dream residue. And everywhere, the recurring motif: STARRY EYES, a beacon of connection in a jaded world.

Personal archives bleed into the present. Family photos, glitched and pixelated, morph into prints. Daisies push through digital noise; Italian artisans distress fabrics into timeworn patinas. Van Beirendonck’s mastery of construction-deconstruction turns garments into Jean Arp-esque puzzles: bowler hats (courtesy of Stephen Jones) pierced with paper flowers, amulets dangling like charms against despair.

Check out the collection below: