Walter Van Beirendonck Holds Book Signing for His ‘Draw the World Awake’

COLOR ME BEAUTIFUL: Walter Van Beirendonck held a preview book signing in Paris Thursday evening. It came a few months in advance of the release of his book, “Draw the World Awake,” which contains more than 500 of his fashion sketches made more than 40 years.

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“It’s all my drawings from my career, which are all put together,” the designer said in an earlier interview.

The large-format, 960-page book will be released in September by Hannibal for 150 euros.

“Draw the World Awake” has three interchangeable covers, and begins with Van Beirendonck ’s start at Antwerp Fashion Academy in 1987. The tome runs through until the present day and in between includes sketches from his collections such as Sado, from 1982, and of outfits for U2’s “PopMart” tour in 1997.

Van Beirendonck has been collecting all of his drawings “forever,” he said. “At the end of the season, I put them all together in a folder. I have like thousands of drawings, of course.”

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The early ones were made with a black pen, but then he moved on to his signature riot of colors, using markers.

“It’s rather nice to see them all now coming together,” Van Beirendonck said of the drawings.

He already put together a first book, containing images of his fashion, titled “Dream the World Awake.” That came out in 2011, in tandem with an exhibit in Antwerp’s Musée de la Mode Anvers.

“Then we’re working on a third one, which is ‘Cut the World Awake,’” Van Beirendonck said. That will include his collages and will be sold starting at the end of 2024.

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