Image via Vogue.com

We'll forgive you for not having heard of Josephus Thimister, who, until now, hasn’t been in the public eye so much. But this former Balenciaga creative director, who began in fashion at Antwerp Fashion School and went on to assist Karl Largerfeld, is now making his way back to couture with a somewhat “political” edge. After more than a decade since his last couture show, opinionated Thimister is turning heads with the concept ‘Bloodshed & Opulence’.

“I feel very peaceful and excited to be returning to couture week, like someone who has woken up from a nine-year-long beauty sleep!" Thimister told Vogue.com. “The world has been changed in every sense since my last couture show by globalisation. I don't think that the concept behind the collection is political, it's more about our personal sensibility towards the word and society. I think that good design should both speak about the world we live in, as well as create beauty. It develops the beauty concept by relating to the world we live in; one cannot exist with the other."