Bidding Adieu To Dries

A true designer’s designer, Dries Van Noten is retiring, and all eyes are on his final women’s wear collection that speaks with the intelligent grace that has driven his design ethos for nearly four decades. He entitled it ‘The Woman Who Dares to Cut Her Own Fringe,’ as a salute to the individuality and expression of his legions of global fans.

The focus was on those gorgeous versatile pieces that we can wear on repeat and in a multitude of ways. There were gabardine bomber jackets, grey marl sweat shirting cut into easy draped ‘hoodie’ dresses; pale pink teddy coats and denim sleeved camel coats plus giant houndstooth pattern funnel neck knits worn with slender stretch maxi skirts.

Van Noten is a master of surprising juxtapositions of colour, print and texture that might see bejewelled sleeves on a classic plaid tailored jacket or a cotton shirt teamed with one his abstract print silk skirts or a little sweater drip with silver chains in a typically degage way.

Over the decades, Van Noten has accrued a cult following and notably without advertising or celebrity and influencer marketing. Rhianna, Cate Blanchett, Margot Robbie, and Venus Williams are devotees amongst a wide circle of designers and fashion insiders. After 150 collections (he launched with menswear in 1986) the time is ripe for the founder, who trained at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts to carve out a new chapter in life. While Van Noten is stepping back from design duties, he has a firm (yet to be announced) succession plan in place ensuring the longevity of the brand which is majority owned by Spanish supergroup, Puig.

Meanwhile, Van Noten (no slouch) will continue to consult on beauty and perfume remarkable for is ravishing pigments and cliché defying scents. Indeed, this Autumn, a new series of four perfumes will land in stores created in collaboration with four different noses. Van Noten gave them carte blanche – the only criteria was ‘surprise me!’ Our first love is Bitter Splash by perfumer, Suzy Le Helley which sees bright grapefruit and leather notes in a seductive blend. As Summer ends, it captures that seasonal shift full of sparkling memories to the prospect of cosy days ahead.