(Paris) Dries Van Noten, one of the most poetic designers in the fashion world, will retire in June, a month after his 66e anniversary, by signing a final spring-summer 2025 collection for men.
“I have been preparing this decision for a while and I feel that it is time to give way to a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the label,” the Belgian designer confided in an open letter on Tuesday, after almost forty years. at the controls of his label.
“At the beginning of the 80s, as a young Antwerp resident, I dreamed of making my place in fashion. […] This dream has come true. Now I want to focus on all the things I never had time for. I am sad, but at the same time happy,” writes the man nicknamed the “Flemish master.”
Established in fashion since the 1980s and unanimously respected in microcosm without having become known to the general public, “DVN” presented its first collection in London, in 1986, with the group “Six d’Anvers” (Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck and Marina Yee), today still synonymous with the avant-garde.
Dries Van Noten stood out for a specific talent: mastery of garment construction, and taste for fabrics and prints, particularly flowers.
“I am a gardener, so flowers automatically come up everywhere: symbolic flowers, simply their colors, or real flowers,” he explained to AFP in 2014.
At the end of February in Paris, where he has been showing since 1993, he stood out with an autumn-winter 2024 women’s collection marked by a touch of colorful dreams, in pastels and loose silhouettes like nightwear and soft bags like teddy bears, all presented in a Parisian construction site.
“Fulfilled”
PHOTO SCOTT A GARFITT, INVISION ARCHIVES/ASSOCIATED PRESS
At the end of February in Paris, he stood out with a fall-winter 2024 women’s collection marked by a touch of colorful dreams, in pastels and loose silhouettes like nightwear and soft bags like teddy bears, all presented in a construction site Parisian construction site.
The collections that will follow, including that of women’s spring-summer 2025, will be created by the team at his studio with whom he has worked for years.
“When the time comes, the (name of) the designer who will continue the history of the house will be announced,” said Dries Van Noten, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Art in Antwerp.
“The Dries Van Noten woman is tender and strong at the same time,” summed up Suzy Menkes, famous fashion editor (Vogue, Herald Tribune, NY Times…), on Instagram.
In 2018, the luxury group Puig took a majority stake in the brand which also develops beauty products and perfumes.
In the letter announcing his withdrawal, Dries Van Noten thanks his suppliers of fabrics and accessories, his workshops and embroiderers in India, but also his customers: “seeing my clothes worn has fulfilled me, beyond words”.
In 2014, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris dedicated an exhibition to Dries Van Noten, delving into the stylist’s multiple sources of inspiration.
“The starting point of a collection can be very literal or very abstract: a painting, a color, someone’s thoughts, ultimately everything…” Dries Van Noten explained to AFP at the time, who spoke a lot about nourished by his travels (India…) and art, with a collection that has remained in the annals of fashion, inspired by the work of Francis Bacon in 2009.
Son and grandson of Antwerp tailors, the designer opened his first boutique in 1989 in the diamond capital of the world. The brand now has 500 points of sale around the world.
In 2008, Dries Van Noten was named “International Designer of the Year” by the American Council of Fashion Designers. Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, he was made a baron by the Royal House of Belgium.