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With his restrained cool and intrinsic sophistication, you wouldn’t necessarily take Dries Van Noten for a party animal. And yet, he certainly seems to know a thing or two about what follows in the wake of a big night out. “The starting point was ‘the morning after’,” Dries told i-D after his incredible show at Palais de Tokyo last night. “A wild night. When you wake up, you grab clothes, from luxury to pyjamas, and put it all on top of each other. Sometimes there’s even a piece of your girlfriend’s wardrobe, like a sparkly sweater.” It was a multi-layered collection – this season not in terms of actual layers as has been the case with Van Noten’s recent collections, but in terms of the information the mastermind designer injected into each look. Take for instance the opening look, a short dressing gown-type coat in paisley styled with studded leather trousers. It should have been a car crash meeting between Hugh Hefner and Ozzy Osbourne, but instead it radiated a sense of bohemian ease, which few designers are capable of conveying quite like Van Noten. And if there really is a party monster hidden in the designer, perhaps the frivolous flower-power era of the 60s and 70s is where it feels most at home. At least if you go by the AW13 prints. “It was about the whole feel of the tradition of paisley prints,” Dries explained. “Of course, there was also a little nod to the 60s and 70s with those jackets made out of Indian scarves. We have the basic, but then we also have the hippie feeling – we have the ease. Just ease.” It was an element most evident in a formal look comprised of grey check trousers and a black velvet smoking jacket worn with a striped pyjama shirt. The collection’s piece de resistance, a soft, voluminous drop-shoulder coat in a purplish weave summed up a show, which otherwise did its best to – and succeeded in – adding a layer for every exit. It was entrancing and totally genius.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
