Models wear creations for Dries van Noten's ready-to-wear fall/winter 2014-2015 fashion collection presented in Paris.
If it's all in the mix, Dries van Noten is the mixmaster
First came the news of Christian Cigrang's investment in Christian Wijnants and AF Vandevorst, then the opening of Dries van Notens show 'Inspiration'
By Karen von HahnSpecial to the Star
Wed., March 19, 2014timer4 min. read
Odd as it may sound, the talk of Paris fashion week was all about the Belgians.
First came the announcement of Belgian shipping magnate Christian Cigrang's significant investment in both Belgian designers Christian Wijnants and the more established A.F. Vandevorst — inspiring many to wonder whether the fashion world (which hasn't glanced east since the dawn of the influential avant garde fashion designers known as the Antwerp Six in 1980) might one day see an Antwerp-based luxury empire the likes of LVMH's Bernard Arnault.
Straight on the stilettos of that news came the opening of Belgian superstar Dries van Noten's "Inspiration" show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre until Aug. 31, which I had the pleasure of visiting with Fashion magazine editor-in-chief, Bernadette Morra, one breathtakingly beautiful morning last week, given Paris' sudden, air-particle-and-pollen-filled explosion into spring.
One of fashion's least celebrated and most independent creative spirits (van Noten's company, founded in 1986, is still privately held, so he has kept himself free of the brand marketing pressure of flogging logos on handbags and fragrances), the deeply cerebral and fashion-literate designer has always been on my short list. Although van Noten has lingered in the semi-obscurity of the fashion cognoscenti over the past few years, with his 2008 International Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (and new killer boutiques in Tokyo and Paris), there is an increasing recognition afoot for his impressive creative output and commitment.
Real, singular creativity and vision can't be readily bottled or labeled, as the show, two years in the making by Contemporary Textiles curator Pamela Golbin in consultation with van Noten and his team, aims to illustrate. The result is not a simple retrospective of an artist and his work but rather an illustrated discussion of his process — the places and ideas and even other artists that inspire him.
One enters through a sort of black cube with names on the walls and floor that range from directors Bernardo Bertolucci and John Waters to musicians Lou Reed and Donna Summer and writer Francis Bacon. The first clothes we see in vitrines are not van Noten's but the hand-picked work of designers Jean-Paul Gaulthier, Yohji Yamamoto and Vivienne Westwood.
"This is a work of introspection," says van Noten in an accompanying display. "A reflection on myself and the way I work — as a designer and in devotion to art."
Passing displays of Fortuny pleats topped with a jacket embroidered in astrological signs to asymmetrically tailored menswear-inspired tuxedos, Morra and I struggle with the right words to describe van Noten's remarkably artful oeuvre. Eclectic is too easy. Singular for sure. Opulent, but also subversive. Sensual, but not overtly sexy.
"Lesbian glam?" Morra offers, before settling on "Elegant androgyny."
Unlike the similarly inclined Miuccia Prada, however, whose work looked clunky next to that of the divine fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli at the recent MoMA retrospective, van Noten may experiment, but the result is never, ever ugly. 'It's always so sophisticated and never obvious," said Morra as we admired a silver beaded blazer from the '90s that we both wished we could take home.
Dries van Noten is both ahead of the trends and beyond them: as the show reveals, the visionary designer first showed vivid clashing prints, shorts for day, photo-florals and optical print black and white graphics — all so very now — before they were even on the radar.
His influences, shown via accompanying projections, photographs and video range from the exquisite morbidity of Dutch still-lifes to the melancholy of Marcel Proust and the punk 'tude of Johnny Rotten. To me, however, what makes van Noten special is not the diversity of what inspires him but the way that he manages to fuse it all together.
A video installation shows trades working on van Noten's beading and embroidery. Examining the video, Morra notes the hand work is likely being done offshore. When I look at the kind of ornament van Noten dares to apply on silks and damasks, its rough almost tribal chunkiness, it occurs to me that this is precisely the point. In one display, a Julie Nickerson portrait of an African tribeswoman's improvised outfit echoes the rough-with-smooth, east meets west, ethnic luxe van Noten has refined over the years.
If fashion now is all about the mix, Dries van Noten is the ultimate mixmaster. His response to the kind of globalism where an offbeat centre like Antwerp — or hey, maybe Toronto? — could become a player is in the beautiful chaos of the artful mash-up.
Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com .