Walter Van Beirendonck is collaborating with IKEA

You don't usually expect to see Walter Van Beirendonck and IKEA in the same sentence. It's difficult to imagine the guy who created collections called "Sex Clown" and "Lust Never Sleeps" wandering the aisles in search of a Billy bookcase. But in an unexpected twist, the Belgian designer is working on a collaboration with the Swedish furniture retailer. 

Van Beirendonck will create five prints for IKEA, which will be rolled out on a whole collection of interior design objects. The collection is set to drop in June 2016. 

In a video released by IKEA, the Antwerp Six designer says that his textiles are based around a concept he calls Wondermooi (the Flemish word for "beautiful").

"I came up with a story about characters living in the clouds," he said, "and the sun and the moon which were very sad because there's so much going wrong in the world. They're crying and big tears are falling down and the clouds get big holes. The cloud people really start to panic, 'What's going on? Our clouds are broken!'"

"And that story, in fact, became a story with different characters and also by the end, different patterns. Every character had a very specific pattern and specific look; I used this to create different ranges of prints and fabrics."

Marcus Engman, IKEA's main designer, told Retail Detail: "We were really looking forward to a collaboration with Walter as his way of using materials and graphic patterns is fascinating to see. The same goes for the stories his fashion collections tell about life itself."

Van Beirendonck's collection is the first in a line of collabs with other fashion designers including Katie Eary, who has been tapped to create a line of cushions and bedding. 

There are no images of the collection out yet, but you can find out more about the collab in the video below: