Van Noten is pure gold at Paris Fashion Week Silky fabrics and touches of gold brought light to an otherwise sombre Spring-Summer 2014 collection by Belgian designer Dries Van Noten, unveiled at this autumn's Paris Fashion Week. Gold was everywhere backstage, not just on the clothes but also in the make-up as artists applied thin sheets of gold to the models" eyelashes. Gold for me is at the same time modern, it's strong, it's rich. But I still wanted to add a few other dimensions to gold. So we looked at the traditional things from women's wear which is lace, which is ruffles, which is all the fringes and things like that," says Van Noten. The designer has created dresses for actresses and royalty, but he says he does not design his collections with celebrities in mind. We dress some royals but it's not that we try to dress them in a posh way. I just make my collections and whoever who feels well in it can wear it. And that's for me the important thing. I'm not going to design with certain clients in mind, no, this I don't do," he insists. Set in a cavernous building formerly used by France's national railway company, the models sparkled gold in the stark industrial surrounding. Though its sheer, shimmering fabrics and flashes of gold brought a shiny touch to the collection, the dark colours evoked autumn more than spring. Van Noten first shot to fame as part of the Antwerp Six, a collective of avant-garde designers to emerge from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Arts in 1980-81. More about: Fashion, France, Paris, Prêt-à-porter