The Belgian Wonder

Three decades of fantastic prints, audacious fabrics, flamboyant embellishments, vibrant colour, and eccentric fashion. Will Dries Van Noten please stand up?

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

Three decades of fantastic prints, audacious fabrics, flamboyant embellishments, vibrant colour, and eccentric fashion. Will Dries Van Noten please stand up? 

The cool mix of feathers against a fake leopard fur coat
The cool mix of feathers against a fake leopard fur coat

Meeting Dries Van Noten is like meeting a really cool relative whom you know but never got to spend time with. He is warm, a little hesitant, but welcoming in a non-fussed way. He has kind eyes and there is something familiar about him—his easy smile and uniform of navy trousers, a white shirt and sweater with a cashmere scarf around his neck. I met and interviewed Dries in Singapore when the store opened in 2007. This September marks 30 years of Dries Van Noten as a fashion label. It’s an important anniversary and, perhaps, why I was invited to interview him in Paris after his show. The Belgian designer himself is a little older—58 years old, to be precise. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1980, he began his fashion career in 1986. He presented his first menswear collection in London as part of the now-legendary Antwerp Six—a group of Belgian designers that included Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee. Dries started his eponymous label from a tiny gallery arcade in Antwerp with men’s and women’s collections. Today, Dries Van Noten is whom we call a designer’s designer, also one who is wonderfully well respected as an independently run company. Dries spoke candidly to me about his success, his passions, his distractions and his insistence on five emails a day.

Men’s style suitings done right for the female form
Men’s style suitings done right for the female form
Join the boys club with a pearl vest against a shirt and tie combo
Join the boys club with a pearl vest against a shirt and tie combo
DRIES ON THE MARCHESA CASATI AND THE MIX OF MASCULINE AND FEMININE INFLUENCES

“The masculine influence in my women’s collections (and vice versa) is something that always in my work. I wanted to explore collection on the Marchesa Casati [for fall/winter 2016] because she is such an icon. But then thought, John Galliano has often covered her such an incredible way, what do I have to say about her? Well, by bringing together two completely different characters—Marchesa Casati, who was like a living work of art, and [her lover, the poet Gabriele] D’Annunzio, who was the ultimate dandy and wanted to make decadence his lifestyle. They challenged each other the whole time and I wanted to reflect their passion in this collection. It’s not just about putting sheer blouses in menswear or men's jackets on women. I think the Marchesa Casati was the ultimate person who invented herself as a living work of art. It’s a very good metaphor for the  social media stars who are creating their own image. If she were alive now, she would have the most likes, all the social media tricks and all the apps social stars use today. Don’t forget she was addicted to having artists paint her portraits—she owned 120 portraits of herself made by the best artists of her time. She was the first selfie queen.”

DRIES ON THE INTENSE FASHION CYCLE AND THE SEE-NOW-BUY-NOW MOVEMENT

“Every designer has to find out for themselves how they want to make fashion. But most of the designers don’t decide—it’s the big groups that do. I think it also has to do with how much a consumer can absorb, how much you can take in; all those images have to become stronger and stronger just to stand out. There are so many fashion shows and before the week is up, it’s couture and when it’s not couture, it’s pre-collection! I think it’s just too much. It’s an overdose of images, which creates saturation. For some houses, the solution is to have direct-to-consumer fashion shows. Good for them, but it’s not for us. For me, collection-making is building up a starting point; it’s a family creation, of styles, of shapes, of all these things.”

DRIES ON INSPIRATION

“The thing with me is that there is no system; sometimes it’s books, sometimes it’s movies, sometimes it’s an artist. I once did a collection based on Francis Bacon because I saw his exhibition at the Tate Britain, and I came out jumping for joy because it was so incredibly beautiful, but also disgusted by the beauty of it. It was an overdose of emotions.How do I translate that into clothes? It’s really veried and there’s no system. It’s a good thing and a bad thing—the bad thing for me is my life would be easier if I found a system, but on the other hand to stay creative and to stay challenged,looking at things from a different angle... It’s good no to be predictable. That is what our clients love because they never know what to expect next.”

DRIES ON RED-CARPET DRESSING

“I don’t feel the need [to do it]; especially the illusion of red-carpet dressing because it’s all so fake. It’s not about real clothes anymore. They often look like little princesses, which isn’t my thing.”

Take a bold stride in a tuxedo jacket and leopard print palazzo trousers
Take a bold stride in a tuxedo jacket and leopard print palazzo trousers
Bold stripes taken from public school boy uniforms
Bold stripes taken from public school boy uniforms
A fluffy fur collar sets off a pale winter face beautifully
A fluffy fur collar sets off a pale winter face beautifully
Feather and pearl embellished heel sandal
Feather and pearl embellished heel sandal
DRIES ON WHAT GOES INTO EACH OF HIS COLLECTIONS

“I want to tell my story, I want to put the topic on the catwalk, I want to decide on the lights, the sound, the music, the makeup; to show it and to learn from the reactions of the press and customers. Direct-to-consumer shows are so different. The merchandisers have all the power because somebody has to decide how much you have to produce that of style. They will dictate how many, how often, what you can show and what you can’t show. It’s not going to be the designer anymore. In this current system, the designer can take risks, but the moment everything is produced, they can’t take risks anymore. For me I’m happy with the system as it is. I can’t give more! I also want to have a life and I think I work very hard. I’m a perfectionist and I want to have time to work on my collections; I want to have time to develop the fabrics, to do tests, to change a heel. Everything really done just right. And for this we need month , we can’t do this in six weeks—forget it.”

DRIES ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

“I have 3,000 people in Kolkata, India doing embroidery. It’s a huge responsibility. People tell me, “You must really love your employees.” There are some seasons when I don’t feel like embroidery, but I still make it because I know that they would lose their jobs if I don’t. So I hide it in a way that you don’t really see it’s embroidered. It’s more tone on tone or it’s more like yarn embroidery or sometimes more flashy. So in that way, there’s always enough work for my people.” 

DRIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

“Social media is very important, but it can’t dictate, it can’t take over, because you need human and emotional contact. That’s very hard to achieve in social media. I’m into social media, but I try to keep that within reasonable limits. I go on Instagram. I shop online But I wanted to go slow with the whole Internet business. I didn’t want to have everything everywhere. Little by little; we are not a huge company and I want to keep control over everything and I want to see that everything is growing organically and healthily. I don’t want to be the biggest fashion house in the world—that’s not my thing.”

DRIES ON EMAILS

“I’ve never accepted more than five emails a day. If I get more than five emails, these's something wrong in my organisation. When I get a lot of emails, I sift out what goes to my assitant, and so on and so forth. I spend enough time on work already. I can read everything I need to in five emails, Plus, I prefer to talk.”

DRIES ON HIS PERSONAL UNIFORM

“The thing is, if you design for yourself, your clothes and your garments age with you. So I decided not to design for myself. I’m always dressed in khakis or navy pants with a navy sweater. The whole day I have to make decisions about collars, fabrics, shapes. Millions of things like every sequin, every yarn, and every colour combination. The last thing I want to do in the morning when I open my wardrobe is ask more questions. I just want to put on a uniform and something neutral.”

Be a modern Marchesa Casati in a dramatic leopard coat
Be a modern Marchesa Casati in a dramatic leopard coat