One of the celebrated Antwerp Six who put Flanders on the fashion map in the 1980s, Van Beirendonck is, at 52, the Grand Old Man of Flemish fashion. The book is by De Morgen fashion journalist Agnes Goyvaerts, who delved into Van Beirendonck’s archives and spoke to friends and colleagues as well as the man himself.

Head of the Antwerp Modeacademie, or Fashion Academy, which opened its doors in 1963, it’s easy to forget how long he’s been around: the Antwerp Six were virtually the birth of Flemish fashion, and Van Beirendonck graduated in 1980, nearly 30 years ago.

Perhaps it’s because he never grew up. While Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester have all settled into a sort of dignified, mature elegance, Van Beirendonck retains the brash punk edge he had at the start. Take a look at the W6YZ range of shoes he recently designed for Italian company Falc, all acid colours that might seem overstated in a gumball machine.

His winter 2009 menswear collection, dubbed Glow, features a blazer consisting only of yellow piping, a bright orange military jacket tied with rope and a pink Paddington duffle-coat.

The Antwerp Six was one of Flanders’ early successful marketing hypes. The Six, who also include Dirk Van Saene, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Marina Yee and Dirk Bikkembergs, studied together, experimented together and showed together – before eventually going their (mostly) separate ways.

But the name lingers on: the 6 in W6YZ is a reference. Van Beirendonck has said that meeting Dirk Van Saene was one of the defining moments of his life. The two have been partners inside and outside of business for nearly 30 years.

Although he broke through at a time of punk, the book explains that Van Beirendonck’s style was shaped at an earlier time, when he used to accompany his mother shopping in 1970s Antwerp. His work does have plenty of Glam and Glitter about it – his pick as top album of all time for Studio Brussel was Ziggy Stardust, and his graduation collection had a Jetsons look, with cone-shaped fuzzy skirts and yokes, metallic nails and antennae.
Goyvaerts’ book features photos from most of his collections down the years, although, due to the constraints of print, there are sadly just not enough of these. It’s a fascinating body of work, even if you sometimes feel you’ve wandered into the backroom of some fetish bar by mistake: recurring motifs include not only oversized prints in Crayola colours but also latex bodysuits and gimp masks.

The author claims that sex is an important influence on Van Beirendonck’s work, and it is – a decidedly under-the-counter sort of sex. Nothing wrong with that, and at least it’s done with humour, something that marks all of his work, from the baby knitwear modelled by hulking moustachioed men to the tubular hats of his latest collection, which look as if they were made of twisted balloons.

The Face, the London-based magazine that was once the arbiter of all that was trendy, called Van Beirendonck “the eccentric prophet behind the Noddy look”, but he’s also a cool-headed businessman. For the last three years he has been artistic director for Scapa Sports and, though his designs are playful and cartoony, the job entails overseeing a team of designers and under the guidance of the sales force in a classic corporate structure.

As head of the Fashion Academy, he has overseen the education of the likes of Véronique Branquinho, Raf Simons, Kris Van Assche and Bruno Pieters. He has also designed children’s wear for the discount chain JBC, which is about as democratic as it gets. “Fashion is not an art,” Van Beirendonck says. “But it’s interesting to push the boundaries and ask questions about what can be done – and what can’t”.

Walter Van Beirendonck: De controversieelste van de Antwerpse modeontwerpers (Walter Van Beirendonck: The most controversial of the Antwerp fashion designers), published by Uitgeverij Houtekiet, €39.95