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DRIES VAN NOTEN CELEBRATES
100 COLLECTIONS

The celebration of one hundred collections by the independent Belgian designer was accompanied by a two-volume publication which includes his creations and concerns.

For Dries Van Noten, March 2017 constituted the anniversary for his hundredth collection in Paris Fashion Week. The print explorer, who insists on maintaining his independency -he never entered into an investment scheme- had 54 models on the catwalk wearing his creations since 1993, presenting a collection that expressed the historical value of the moment. Along with this celebration of re-connection, a two-volume book was published in October by Lanoo Publications. The first volume covers the collections from 1 to 50, and the second one those between 51 and 100.
Gazing to the future, the Belgian designer dives into his past, thus giving the opportunity to the public to experience his skills working on fabric, his experimentations with designs, and his commentary on colors.
Additionally, the reader can witness the messages Van Noten creates each time as an active member of an adjustable society, who, in the past, was transpired by the optimism of a continuous prosperity, while today looks with distraught at the turbulence it suffers.  

Dries Van Noten // the CODE Magazine

The publication is enriched with two thousand images which are related to the catwalk, backstage, stage design and location choice for fashion shows

It was in this way that the aesthetic code of the Flemmish artist was born, inspired by various sources, such as cinema, painting, and music. The two volumes constitute a path through Dries Van Noten’s history and highlight his spirit through fashion’s ephemerality and creation’s endurance.
The publication is enriched with two thousand images which are related to the catwalk, backstage, stage design, and location choice for fashion shows (often bizarre). For Dries Van Noten, this book is an escape into the future.
As he puts it, “it commemorates my past, so I will be able to focus on tomorrow and further develop as a designer.” Besides the repérage and retrospect, the two volumes also offer the designer’s mark, who, on this occasion, once more emphasizes that life exists in the independent realm as well (although self-evident, not quite the case in the fashion industry).
Either way, Van Noten’s professional activity is the exception in a field which “takes complete advantage” of designers and talented people. The texts were written by the journalists Susannah Frankel (female collections) and Tim Blanks (male collections), functioning as decoders around the process of a collection’s birth, as Dries Van Noten himself notes.
Van Noten was born in Antwerp in 1958 and dresses the likes of Cate Blanchett and Maggie Gyllenhaal. With an aesthetics that integrates rich colors, social references, insistence on the stitching and symbolism, the Belgian designer sought his identity through the minimalism of his fellow Flemish designers, who he eventually abandoned from the mid-2000 onwards.

the code magazine-Dries Van Noten-fashionollections-universary-Paris | the code magazine
the code magazine-Dries Van Noten-fashionollections-universary-Paris | the code magazine

Being faithful to prêt-à-porter clothes, he never engaged with Haute couture and rejected its closed character. Although the Fashion House Dries Van Noten continues as an independent company, this does not restrict its continuous spread and growth. 

the code magazine-Dries Van Noten-fashionollections-universary-Paris | the code magazine
the code magazine-Dries Van Noten-fashionollections-universary-Paris | the code magazine
the code magazine-Dries Van Noten-fashionollections-universary-Paris | the code magazine

DRIES VAN NOTEN IN 8 STEPS

1958: Dries Van Noten is born in Antwerp.
1979: his father opens a boutique on the outskirts of Antwerp, selling clothes by designers such as Emmanuel Ungaro, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Ermenegildo Zegna. Thus, young Dries slowly enters into and is attracted by the world of fashion.
1986: Barneys New York department stores make a small order, a collaboration that will continue in the future.
1986: the Antwerp Six (Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs, Marina Yee) rent a truck and go to London, where they present their work at the London Fashion Week.
1989: Van Noten opens his first boutique in Antwerp, the “Het Modepaleis”.
2004: He is decorated with the honor of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
2008: Ηe wins the international award of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
2017: Ηe was created Baron according to a letters patent by Philip A, King of Belgium.

CREDITS

Words:
Ira Sinigalia

Photos:
Courtesy of Dries Van Noten

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