Walter Van Beirendonck Fashion Is Dead

The craziest member of the Antwerp 6 was commissioned past director Nigel Lowery to create costumes for Akhnaten, an opera by American minimalist composer Philip Glass about the rising and fall of pharaoh Akhnaten. Between ii dress rehearsals, the Belgian designer showed i-D the sketches that were the foundation of his absorbing costumes and spoke about how he turned up the book when dressing the Royal Egyptian family.

"Liberty of expression" was the clear message from your men'southward collection last January. Did you feel any brake while working on this project?
Oh no! The nice thing almost doing projects away from fashion is the fact that I really encounter them every bit moments where I am able to express myself 100%. Creating costumes and characters for theatre and opera is something that I savour a lot. I utilise my strong imagination to get into the story, and from that point, I create a whole new earth.

How did you get into this opera take a chance?
The managing director, Nigel Lowery, has known my piece of work for a long time. When Antwerp Opera got in touch with him for this Akhnaten product, he asked the opera's director to contact me and inquire me if I would exist interested by a collaboration. I said: "YES."

Is it your first fourth dimension working on Egyptian history?
As a primary inspiration? Aye. I had a rather "kitschy" feeling about Egypt due to the over-exposure and the golden way it's presented in the media and museums. And then I read a lot about Akhnaten himself and the other Pharaohs and I discovered several stories I was not aware of. Thanks to this enquiry, I gained respect for the amazing cultural vision they had.

What color combinations did you employ?
I chose to do a lot of gilded, merely I combined it with black outlines, almost as a trompe-50'oeil result on a blackness groundwork, to create sharp trunk shapes. In the second part, I kept this thought, but I mixed the gilt with typical Egyptian colours as turquoise, green, blue and mint.

Philipp Glass embraced an ancient subject with a link to modernistic times. Is this subtext reflected in your costumes?
Well, information technology is really a long time ago that Akhnaten was shown on stage, and the original version had very Egyptian inspired costumes. From my showtime talks with Nigel, I felt that he wanted to introduce a more than contemporary feeling. He talked near Belgian artist Frans Masereel, and then I used his woodblock-prints as an inspiration for the sharp cuts that you can run across on the costumes. I started with a lot of research most Akhnaten's life, I added some glam-rock/David Bowie ingredients, as well as contemporary suits and urban silhouettes with black overalls and Reebok sneakers. In that location are a lot of accessories of course. Some characters accept rapper rings with "I love sun" and "I beloved sin" symbols. 1 of the characters is wearing a huge fist gilt helmet. The fist is a reference to the symbol of the Egyptian revolution in 2011.

Am I wrong, or are some of Akhnaten'south looks similar to the suits in your "Shut your eyes to see" drove?
True… The fabrics, platform shoes, make upwardly and earrings. David Bowie was the inspiration to that collection and, in a fashion, I run into my Akhnaten as David Bowie.

For your own shows you always imagine hair and make-up. Is it the same process for this opera?
When I'm creating characters, the working process is quite similar to working on my collections and I create full look from A-Z: pilus, make-up, clothes, shoes and accessories. For the opera, I created rather strong expressive make-upward for the royals, with prosthesis on chins, cheeks and fingers. I was actually concerned nearly the singers' reactions, just luckily the prosthesis felt good and did not interfere with the singing.

You lot've collaborated with many artists such equally Erwin Wurm, Kenny Perry, Folkert de Jong, Scooter Laforge, but you always said that making wearing apparel was not a grade of art. Would you lot consider your costumes for Akhnaten more than as a form of art?I only come across real fine art-cooperation every bit Art. For Akhnaten, I would refer to it as costume pattern.

Akhnaten runs until February 22 at Flanders Opera in Antwerp and from March 4 through x at Gent Opera.

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