Dries Van Noten held his first ever Paris runway present again in 1991. Tonight he introduced his final. Though he’ll proceed to advise the design groups from afar, Van Noten, 66, is stepping down from the day-to-day inventive path of his eponymous model with a purpose to take pleasure in a recent section of life.
Whereas making ready to cowl this night’s much-anticipated present on Vogue Runway, we in contrast notes and shared reminiscences about Van Noten experiences from the previous. We concluded that following his collections has been like having fun with a long-ongoing and sensible dialog with a captivating buddy. This buddy’s important character has remained constant and true, but he’s at all times additionally pushing to inject one thing new and surprising into the dialogue.
That’s as a result of though he’s at all times been recognized for the wearability of his garments, Dries has nonetheless been some of the experimental of designers in terms of the runway. Which is why we determined for this ultimate Vogue Runway Dries Van Noten evaluation we’d conduct an experiment of our personal—a evaluation by dialog.
Nicole Phelps: I can’t keep in mind a state of affairs corresponding to this. Many designers have been pressured out of their positions. Others have left at their peak—consider Helmut Lang and Martin Margiela. However for a designer founder to decide on to stroll away and to share the information earlier than a present somewhat than after—it’s particular. A final goodbye.
Luke Leitch: He’s designed his personal departure: how elegant is that?
NP: Very. I suppose it comes right down to having labored as an unbiased designer for so long as he did—over 30 years earlier than promoting a minority stake to Puig in 2018. Doing issues once you wish to do them, the way you wish to do them. I’m completely happy for Dries and his backyard, but it surely’s positively a loss for trend. We want extra designers considering and dealing on a human scale, like he at all times has, no more manufacturers promoting emblem T-shirts.
LL: There was a whole lot of solidarity proven from the group of designers. So many confirmed up tonight. In no explicit order I noticed Thom Browne, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Diane von Furstenberg, Glenn Martens, Walter Van Beirendonck, Veronique Nichanian, Neil Barrett, Alexandre Mattiussi, Harris Reed, Filip Arickx Maria Cornejo, Haider Ackermann…
