Is Walter Van Beirendonck’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection a reference to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure? Almost certainly not. Do the Antwerp Six member’s designs look like an homage to the ultra-popular manga and anime? Absolutely.
For those unfamiliar with the famous franchise, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a decades-old series of such massive influence across the globe with so many memes birthed from its very, well, bizarre plot — especially the Stardust Crusaders arc — that simply asking whether something is a Jojo reference is itself a meme.
Jojo‘s depictions of comically muscled men and their distinctive costumes, hairstyles, and poses are so inimitable that parallels have been drawn between the franchise and nearly every other piece of media in existence.
Its influence has even crossed over with fashion already, as there was an official Jojo x Gucci crossover.
However, Van Beirendonck, the 65-year-old Belgian designer perhaps known for his expressive garments and Virgil Abloh beef, has most likely never heard of Jojo or the massive meme culture surrounding it.
And, yet, somehow he has concocted a clothing collection that recalls the pompadoured, posing characters popularized by Jojo creator Hirohiko Araki, down to the cartoonish masks, gold accessories, and, yes, pompadours.
This is coincidence, of course, but like the infinite monkey theorem suggests, it ain’t too shocking.
Here, we have a Japanese artist who designs outlandish costumes and a fashion designer who creates outrageous clothing.
The throughline between Araki and Van Beirendonck, though something I never would’ve expected, is surprisingly easy to comprehend when you see Van Beirendonck’s SS23 collection in photos. Go figure.
If Van Beirendonck’s models were, physically, built less like catwalk models and more like The Rock, we’d be well within Jojo cosplay territory.
As is, the end result is a remarkable coinkydink that made for a fun surprise. I mean, seriously, scroll through the shots at the top of this page and tell me that doesn’t look like you’re backstage at the screen test for a live-action Jojo film.
Official Jojo by Van Beirendonck collab when?
