Formal wear origins

One winter evening, before
renowned designer Dries
van Noten’s show, a crowd
bustled outside the venue,
Musee Bourdelle, which
was tucked away in a side-street near
the Montparnasse railway station in
Paris. Outside, desperate hangers-on
were held back by the implacable PR
watchdogs, while inside the buyers
and press were trying to squeeze into
the Great Hall, where stand the most
prominent statues of Antoine Bourdelle,
one of Rodin’s most prolific students.
After a game of musical chairs (if
this can be said of jostling to find a
standing spot), I finally tucked myself
next to a statue and prayed that no
one would stand in front of me. The
people next to me were passing time
in anticipation of the show by taking
hits from a small metal flask. Despite
being spatially challenged, the marbled
hall has a ceremonial atmosphere,
especially with the statue of a horserider
looming over the blogger Diane
Pernet’s vertical hairdo.
One of the challenges of putting
on a show is finding a venue that
complements the clothes. As the show
began and young models descended the
stairs in their double-breasted English
suits with strong shoulders, trimmed
with fur and full-leg trousers, I
understood why we had to endure this
claustrophobia – the Duke of Windsor
himself would not be ashamed to be on
that catwalk.
“I was not planning to use this as a
venue” said van Noten when I spoke to
him the next day, “but when I saw it, I
said, ‘This is it.’ I really wanted to have
something heroic and this was perfect. The
architectural atmosphere of the space, the
huge white cube and the horse statue – it
all looked unreal. It showed the glamorous
DESIGNER IN VOGUE
DRIES VAN NOTEN:
A TRIBUTE TO COLOURS
AND TRADITION
As a manufacturer of fine cloth, Scabal frequently provides fabrics to top fashion designers who
buck trends. Among them, Dries Van Noten, who shows his passion for colours and craftsmanship.
Belgian designer Dries Van Noten
and the military side of the collection. The
military precision that I wanted to reflect
was also present in the space.”
The military elements in this
collection were distinctly van
Noten’s – the elegance of their clothes,
with their heavy gold embroidery,
harked back to the officer uniforms
of the nineteenth century. “Military is
always there in menswear, in one way or
another,” said van Noten. “In menswear
I always refer to traditional things, and
military is one of them.”
This respect for tradition can also be
found in his new men’s store in Paris,
where we met for a brief conversation.
Located on the left bank of the Seine,
opposite the Louvre, the boutique is an
exercise in reverence. Van Noten and
his design team worked painstakingly
to preserve the original lacquer of the
1970s interior of this former primitive
© Theirry Chomel
art gallery. “We had to rework quite a
lot of it,” he explained. “We found a
manufacturer in Belgium who could still
do this kind of work. Ten layers of orange
paint had to be applied underneath the
lacquer to get the original colour.”
This is the fourth van Noten shop
in the world, besides the women’s
boutique next door, a store in Hong
Kong, and the original in Antwerp,
which is one of the most impressive
shops I have ever been to, something
straight out of Zola’s The Ladies’
Paradise. “It’s quite rare to find an old
shop space in Antwerp,” said van Noten.
“This was the only store where all the
original interior was in place. In 1950s
the ceilings were lowered in the space, so
we had to restore everything to its original
condition.”
Despite living and working in Antwerp,
van Noten feels equally at home in
Paris. “I love the city, and I love this
particular spot. You look outside and you
see the river, you see the Louvre, and I think
it’s a magical place to be.“ The vibe of
the men’s store is quite dandyish, and I
thought that Oscar Wilde wouldn’t feel
out of place here. In addition to van
Noten’s own collection, the front room
of the store houses shaving products
by the English barber Geo F. Trumper.
“It’s a way of showing my respect for
tradition,” said van Noten. “I am not
nostalgic, but I have enormous respect for
the skills and craftsmanship of the old time,
which is something I try to incorporate in
my collections.”
‘I LIKE TO STAY IN
THE STUDIO AND
WORK WITH MY
TEAM ON ALL THE
FABRICS, ALL THE
COLOURS.’
Van Noten comes from a sartorial
family. His grandfather worked as a
‘retourner’ in the 1920s. Men who had
worn out their suits would come to his
workshop, where he would take them
apart, turn the fabric inside out, and
put them back together. Having made
a bit of money, in the 1930s he became
the first Antwerp-based producer of
ready-made garments for men. Van
Noten’s father had a store selling
luxury clothing in Antwerp, so it was
natural for his young son to enroll
into the fashion programme at the
Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Art.
Upon graduation, van Noten was one
of several young designers who took
their clothes to London fashion week
in 1986, and who forever went down in
fashion history as ‘The Antwerp Six’.
Van Noten is most famous for the
combinations of colours that permeate
his clothes, especially in his women’s
line. Whether subtle or obvious,
they have an arresting quality, as if
a rainbow exploded and spilled its
contents onto fabric. His keen eye for
colour is probably unrivalled in the
fashion industry, but he underplays his
talent with typical Flemish modesty.
“You just start to work on it, sometimes it
just happens,” van Noten said, “but not
always. I like to play with colours, I like
to create tensions, unexpected things with
colour. I also love to garden, so maybe it
has something to do with that.”
Besides gardening, van Noten is also
an avid art buyer, although he hates
the word ‘collector’. “A collector is
someone who collects a certain artist –
I just buy what I like.” Indeed, several
art works from his own collection
lined the walls; a painting by van
Dyck sits in unexpected harmony with
an old Japanese calligraphy print.
Despite achieving renown, van
Noten keeps a low profile. His colour
patterns in the clothes sometimes
resemble those found in traditional
Middle Eastern dress, and his
beautiful scarves are often decorated
by Indian craftsmen. “In fashion, you
can travel as much as you want, you can
go to all the big cities. But I am also a
very hands-on designer. I like to stay in
the studio and work with my team on all
the fabrics, all the colours.” After a brief
pause, he added: “Actually it’s the part
of my job that I enjoy most.”
Impervious to trends, van Noten has
gained a loyal following over the years
without posting a single ad in a fashion
magazine. For any such designer, being
outside of the fashion game can reap
its benefits. In today’s world of fashion
cool, dominated by the black-clad show
attendees, his colourful clothes have
an unexpected freshness. “I think I can
proudly say that we have a loyal client
base all over the world,” said van Noten.
“People stay attached to our clothes. They
don’t wear them only once or twice, but
continually combining the old with the
new, which is the way I see fashion.”
Eugène Rabkin
Autumn-Winter 2011-2012 Collection by Dries Van Noten
DRIES VAN NOTEN’S KEY DATES
1958: Born in Antwerp, Belgium
1973: Began working with his father in his
tailor’s shop and attending fashion shows
with him.
1976: Started a fashion design course at the
Royal Antwerp Academy.
1985: Started his first fashion line.
1986: Presentation of his menswear collection
in London.
1989: Opening of his first boutique,
Het Modepaleis in Antwerp in an 1881
redbrick atelier that once housed the
shop of his grandfather’s rival.
1991: Staged his first menswear show in Paris.
2004: The book Dries Van Noten 01-50 celebrates
the 20 th anniversary of the business and
his 50 th show.
2007: His first Paris boutique opens on the
Quai Malaquais.
2008: Awarded the International Designer
Award from the CFDA and an honorary
‘Royal Designers for Industry’ award
from the Royal Society for the
encouragement of Arts, Manufactures
and Commerce (RSA) in London.
2009: Awarded the ‘Chevalier de
l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’
by the French Culture Ministry.
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© DVN