Followed by a Gourmet Gazette Slideshow

From Walter van Beirendonck’s Paris Menswear Fall Winter 2026 collection. Photo courtesy Walter van Beirendonck. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette 

Paris, France —It was very fun, very festive and very well cut. What’s more a good time was had by one and all at this splendid show during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris. Walter van Beirendonck, one of the fashion world’s Antwerp Six, brought to us the bright colors, the intricate patterns and the beautifully cut clothing all paired with whimsical and practical accessories. We particularly appreciated the suave, stunning stuffed snakes looped around the models’s necks in guise of a necktie or why not a necklace. The practical backpacks (once again with partner Eastpak) with one sporting a lion’s head and the roomy color coordinated tote bags, these were winners as well. And everyone loved the T-shirts. The tailoring is some of the finest spotted on the runways while the fabrics range from great British woollens to plastics. And the designer whose long career makes him an established albeit totally outside of the box presence on the global fashion scene pulled off a winning show. 

From Walter van Beirendonck’s Paris Menswear Fall Winter 2026 collection. We liked the “snake ties” in the second row. Photo courtesy Walter van Beirendonck. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

« I have always felt like an outsider in this industry. I’m not complaining. It’s a place from which you can look at things differently. This season, I delved back into my deep love for Art Brut and Outsider Art. I turned to the work of André Robillard, who has spent most of his life in psychiatric hospitals making guns out of scraps: wood, tape, found objects. Something about that moves me deeply. An urgency and a complete disregard for what is expected or accepted, » explained the Belgian designer,  adding, « T-shirts form the backbone. Some of them ask: HI THERE, ARE YOU FR? There is a tendency now to dismiss the new generations. But they are the truth. Even when the world tells them otherwise. Youth for real. » 

From Walter van Beirendonck’s Paris Menswear Fall Winter 2026 collection. Photo courtesy Walter van Beirendonck. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette 

« I have called this collection SCARE the CROW / SCARECROW. Perhaps because a scarecrow stands alone, assembled from whatever is at hand, trying to look human. Subcultures, as we once knew them, have disappeared. What you see here are the Scarecrows of 2026, » said van Beirendonck in a statement about his show. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette

A Gourmet Gazette Slideshow of Walter van Beirendonck Paris Menswear Fall Winter 2026 collection. Photos courtesy Walter van Beirendonck. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette https://www.waltervanbeirendonck.com/