The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
PARIS, France — The Bercy backstage area was so hot the walls were running with sweat, but Dries Van Noten was generating his own heat, so excited was he by the collection he'd just shown. There's always something deeply personal about what he does, but this one seemed to be particularly special to him. "Anti-industrial!" he enthused. "It's a sign of the times in fashion, it's the idea of contemporary arts and crafts, it's about my place in the industry. We're looking at the small things."
Van Noten is a true designer — maybe even old school — in his passion for his craft, and this collection brought him back to the stuff that human hands make, with all its beautiful imperfections. Like the invitation, a small ceramic square, or the wealth of artisanal detail in the clothes, or the organic, raw materials.
Thick denim fringing swung from a bomber jacket, more fringing featured knots of macramé and tapestry tops came undone in a frenzy of unfinishedness. And a photoprint of patchworked denim was anchored by gorgeous calligraphy, courtesy of a young St Petersburger named Pokras Lampas. That was the kind of decoration that took the place of Van Noten's more usual embroidery or splatter of sequins.
The designer was inspired by a vision of a utopian 19th century community devoted to aestheticism. Arcane though the inspiration may have been, Van Noten anchored it in sportswear: t-shirts, oversized sweats, baggy skate shorts, draped in the drama of a duster coat, and a lot of it photo-printed with images from old tapestries.
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The colours were muted, adding a worn quality to the clothes. Those tapestry prints started to look like baroque camo after a while as a repetitive element crept into the presentation. But, in a season where exaggerated volume has become a major statement, Van Noten showed deep-pleated, Oxford baggish trousers that looked pretty desirable.
His backdrop was a wall of headlights, created 30 years ago by the street theatre company Royal de Luxe. Van Noten first saw it a decade ago in Antwerp. Today, it blazed out at the finale in a testament to repurposing the old and used-up. Dries said he was doing the same thing with his own back pages in this collection: old ideas revisited with new craft. The lift that notion needed never came. But a groundwork was definitely laid for whatever comes next.
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