Naturally, most of the 800-plus attendees had been decked out of their favourite Dries Van Noten outfits; there have been sufficient florals within the room to fill the magical backyard at Van Noten’s nation property exterior Antwerp. As visitors sipped on champagne and picked at canapes, they watched a four-sided display screen within the heart of the room which performed a collage of great moments from Van Noten’s profession. I discovered Russell Westbrook staring up on the projection. The hooper was there, he advised me, as a result of Dries Van Noten was the primary Paris Trend Week present he ever attended again when he was attempting to interrupt into the style works. “I’m so grateful to be right here,” Westbrook stated. He pointed at a picture from the watershed Spring-Summer season 2019 males’s assortment, which featured a wavy Verner Panton collab that grew to become one of many defining moments of that season. “I obtained these pants and that jacket,” he stated. “Ever since, I’ve been impressed by what he’s executed.”
Martens and Rogge had been two of over a dozen designers in the home. I noticed Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Haider Ackermann, Thom Browne, Veronique Nichanian, Kris Van Assche, and Diane Von Furstenberg. “You recognize, you make the choice,” Von Furstenberg advised me of her Belgian countryman’s resolution to make a swish exit. “He appears very completely happy.” Rumor had it that Martin Margiela had made the journey from Antwerp; I used to be advised he was not on the invite listing, which did nothing to cease me from looking excessive and low for the reclusive avante-garde icon.
Van Noten is a designer’s designer, and his affect extends effectively past the tight-knit Belgian style scene. “Dries has impressed all of us, by the way in which he’s approached his personal collections over time, and being true to himself and telling his personal story,” stated Thom Browne, who famous he was attending his “first and final” Dries Van Noten present. “It’s about celebrating his profession,” he stated.
Margiela apart, the true query was whether or not the subsequent designer of Dries Van Noten was within the room. In his retirement assertion, Van Noten stated it was “time to depart room for a brand new technology of abilities to deliver their imaginative and prescient to the model.” I requested Rogge if she cared to touch upon the rising hypothesis that she’s subsequent in line. “Completely not!” the Belgian native stated with amusing. “However thanks for asking.”
“You aren’t?” interjected Martens. “We nonetheless don’t understand it’s you, eh?”
“I can’t affirm!” Rogge replied.
“Are you going to be introduced tonight or not?” Martens teased. “In fact, I hope it’s going to be Meryll,” he added.
For her half, Rogge stated, “I am hoping it’s going to be somebody who’s going to care about the home and care for the home.”
Round 10:00, a couple of lengthy bass notes reverberated by the manufacturing facility, signaling it was time to take our seats, which had been organized alongside a breathtakingly lengthy runway plastered with leaves of ultra-fine silver foil. Because the lights got here down, visitors put their arms round every others’ shoulders. Thus started the one style present of the week that no person needed to finish. Silver leaves swirling round their ft, a forged of Dries Van Noten fashions from throughout the a long time wore their good friend’s remaining assortment. The primary mannequin out, sporting an extended navy coat, walked with a definite solemnity; it turned out that he had opened Van Noten’s 1991 runway debut, too. One other man with grey hair glanced right here and there on the crowd—it had clearly been some time. Multiple gave the impression to be on the verge of tears. In line with casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro, he and Van Noten tracked down most of the long-retired faces on Instagram, and each single one stated sure.
“Time… probably the most advanced expressions, reminiscence made manifest,” went the voiceover by David Bowie, an oft-referenced hero of Van Noten’s. The designer was clearly ruminating on the that means of endings as he put collectively his swan track assortment, however he didn’t need to finish on a best hits retrospective. As a substitute, Van Noten needed to recommend a method ahead, to suggest new concepts about methods to gown elegantly at the moment and tomorrow—the identical as he’s executed 149 occasions earlier than.
He did so by the methods which have lengthy made his work so quietly pleasant: in gentle structured tailoring, lengthy and unfastened, that labored with and never in opposition to the physique. In imaginative layering, with translucent organza tops and trousers juxtaposed in opposition to formal wools. In delicate embroidery, with fantastic gold and silver threadwork woven throughout outerwear. In funkily-clashing textures, with seams of shiny purple crinkled polyamide, shiny snakeskin-printed leather-based, shaggy fluorescent wools, luxurious velvets, and translucent recycled polyester all working by the lineup. And, after all, in sample, with giant florals made with a conventional Japanese ink-transfer approach erupting throughout flowy button-ups and trousers and trenches.
Courtesy of Getty Photos / Richard Bord
How do you place a bow on a generational profession? As Bowie’s “Sound and Imaginative and prescient” introduced the room to an emotional crescendo, out got here a sequence of shimmery gold trousers and shorts, then a prime, and at last a jacket, the material fluid like mercury. Then the nearer, a swooping tuxedo coat, golden trousers, and humble, strappy sandals. Poetry, Dries Van Noten fashion. With 800 individuals on their ft cheering and clapping (and a few weeping), together with the fashions on their emotional finale parade, a still-overwhelmed Van Noten got here out for his bow, flashing his signature two-handed wave. However the grasp showman had another grand gesture. As he exited, he raised his arms another time, signaling a curtain-drop reveal of—an enormous disco ball! Behind the scenes in the course of the present, a crew had hoisted the mirrored globe out of the video dice, bartenders had been pouring Belgian beer by the bucketful, and a couple of Many DJs had been queueing the last word retirement social gathering playlist. Everybody gathered their emotions and streamed towards the bar. The message was apparent. Quite than cry, Dries needed us to bop.
