Belgian designer Tom Van Der Borght is speaking to me from Berlin where, some 15 hours prior, he showed his Autumn/Winter 2021 menswear collection (“Seven Ways To Be TVDB / Act 3: A Hopeful Parade”) as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. “It’s always nice the morning after the show and you get reactions,” he chirrups down the phone. “It’s a moment I enjoy a lot actually.”
The 42-year-old designer is right to feel upbeat. Mounted in an audience-free show space at the German capital’s former power station (AKA the “Kraftwerk”) and consisting of 21 retina-bending creative looks dubbed “High-Tech Bricolage” by the designer, the show plunged a welcome shot of positivity into the arm during so-called Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year.