Bonaveri Magazine

clothes moving on a runway at the fashion show or on
people who wear them. In an exhibition or a window
everything becomes static, so the mannequin has to
give an extra dimension to the clothes. At the time, I
think it was around the millennium, we invested a lot
of research into the posture of the mannequins; the
wooden arms with the movable hands and fingers are
so refined that you can put a lot of movement into the
clothes. We once did a window for the AW 2013-14
collection where it looked like the mannequins were
dancing.
The mannequin should bring the clothes to life, the
focus should remain on the garments, the mannequin
has to be invisible, therefore we work with the black
fabric mannequins, they support the garments
perfectly but disappear into the background.
We usually think about female mannequins? How
about the male ones?
For us the biggest challenge at the time were actually
the male mannequins, it was not easy to get the
proportions correct, as you are speaking to different
types of people. I remember that we struggled in the
beginning with the male proportions, but we managed
and I’m still happy about both the man and woman
mannequins.
How do you like to play with the visual world?
I’ve always been interested in the different parts of
the process, and I always wanted to be involved in the
different steps of the collection. I work more globally
on the concepts and the team that has been working
on the windows for many years works it out into detail.
From windows to communication. No ADV at all in
the history of Dries Van Noten.
It’s something that happened organically, we
communicate with our fashion shows and always
had a good understanding with the buyers as well as
with the final customer without feeling the need to
advertise.
Let’s circle back to the beginning of this conversation.
The Nordic sea, David Bowie, artist Victor Vasarely,
roses... just to name a few. So many inspirations have
a second life in your dresses. How does your creative
process work?
It’s a process, I cannot really describe it; things
that cross my path and that evoke an emotion,
it can be almost everything. It is not like a
particular moment that you see the light and
think… Often it is also a reaction to something.
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