Men's Fashion: G-STAR and Walter Van Beirendonck unveil experimental capsule collection at Paris Fashion Week

Antwerp designer Walter Van Beirendonck's Spring-Summer 2025 collection, showcased at this month's Paris Fashion Week, features a distinctive collaboration with Amsterdam denim brand G-STAR, challenging traditional garment construction and denim design.

Held in the botanical garden of La Faculté de Pharmacie de Paris in Saint-Germain, located in the Sixth arrondissement of Paris, the show highlighted the designer's innovative denim experiments at the core of this partnership.

Titled "Denim with Balls," the designer was given complete carte blanche to explore unconventional garment manufacturing techniques, utilising minimal stitching and unique methods with glue and tapes.

This 19-piece limited-edition collection boasts bold styles like the Square Jeans, Wader Jeans, Embossed Pamflet Jeans, and Future Proof Jacket, characterized by embossed dots, taped seams, and exaggerated details.

All denim pieces are crafted from certified Cradle to Cradle fabric. The range also includes 3D-knitted tops and sweaters adorned with Van Beirendonck's slogans "Future Proof," "Wow," and "Stitch Less."

The embossed dots throughout the collection embody the playful "Denim with Balls" concept.

Walter Van Beirendonck

Explained the visionary designer: "I aimed to challenge and reimagine traditional methods.  Why are clothes still being stitched when we have the potential to explore so many other techniques?" This project is all about innovation, research and pushing the conventions of fashion.  It was great to be given total creative freedom by G-STAR."

Gwenda van Vliet, CMO at G-STAR** said, "Van Beirendonck is one of the most important fashion designers of our times.  His unique vision, playfulness and extreme creative mind are why we decided to work with him.  'Denim with Balls' is a testament to our shared vision of challenging norms and redefining what denim can be."

The unisex Denim with Balls capsule collection will be available in selected stores worldwide in February 2025.

All photos, courtesy of G-STAR x Walter Van Beirendonck, by Dominique MAITRE

** G-Star recently introduced its latest denim innovation, "Homegrown Denim," developed through a pioneering collaboration with Wageningen University & Research and Dutch Cotton. Funded by G-Star, this experiment investigated the potential of greenhouse-grown cotton to significantly reduce the environmental impact of global cotton cultivation, aiming to benefit the entire industry.

The research was driven by the need to meet the rapidly growing global demand for responsible cotton. Cotton is relatively easy to grow but requires substantial agricultural space and up to 10,000 liters of water per kilogram, depending on a specific warm climate, making cotton cultivation the beginning of a lengthy and complex supply chain.

“G-Star’s curiosity and drive for innovation led us to our partnership with Wageningen University & Research to study the feasibility of growing cotton in a greenhouse. This groundbreaking experiment could revolutionize cotton cultivation by drastically reducing water consumption and land use, eliminating the use of chemical pesticides, improving cotton quality, and significantly shortening the supply chain,” said Rebecka Sancho, Head of Sustainability at G-Star.

The six-month experiment, conducted at a research facility in Bleiswijk, Netherlands, examined the quality, yield, and fiber properties of greenhouse-grown cotton, comparing its environmental footprint to traditional methods. Strategies like precision irrigation and renewable energy were explored to reduce impact, alongside an analysis of economic viability and market potential.

The research resulted in the first Dutch greenhouse-grown cotton. The findings revealed that growing cotton in a greenhouse provides a controlled and protected environment that enhances crop productivity, quality, and sustainability, while reducing the risks associated with outdoor cultivation.