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Dries Van Noten: Ethnic as the New Modern

Dries Van Noten went back to doing what he does best - colorful prints, ethnic fabrics, modern attitude and a sense that women should be polished but never stiff in their dress.

Last season, Van Noten went rather formal, a smart change of gear, but one ultimately not ideally suited to this designer for whom color is always the key.

But for his Spring 2010 collection, shown in Paris on Sunday, Oct. 4, the Belgian designer ranged around Asia, tapping into Ikats from Uzbekistan, batiks from Bali and chinoiserie from, well, China.

Van Noten also took a few bold risks with his draping, swaddling the opening looks with Balinese prints, cutting dresses so they fell flatteringly, yet with enough volume to forgive the less than ideal figure.

The designer also worked closely with museums in Japan and his native Antwerp, researching original fabrics and re-creating them, frequently with artisans in Asia, but avoiding the banal Photoshop effects of lesser talents.

But what’s best about Van Noten is that he takes the ancient to reconfigure the new. So his strong shouldered boleros in mega patchwork of Chinese leaves and plaids, or impressive loose plantation pants all looked fresh. Van Noten also showed clever platforms with contrasting heels in metallic skins, and again they felt right for now.

Juxtaposing metal finishes, lacquer, abstract Chinese silk and remarkable all-black plaids, this collection looked like a very subtle new step for Van Noten.

“We’ve been to India and that gave me the idea of really working with the sort of resources that are rare today, hand looms and artisans whose skills are very antique,” explained Van Noten.

Van Noten is one of the fashion industry’s best colorists at the moment. He shows amazing skill at combining shiny yellows with subtle greens or even curry. No matter how daring or off-limits the combination; Van Noten pulls it off masterfully. He is now the most inventive designer by far when it comes to creating memorable prints.

It helped that the staging was suitably arty yet authoritative. Show producer Etienne Russo discovered a charmingly wrecked bank lobby, in the midst of reconstruction and boasting dramatic images of industry worldwide. It seemed an odd, but telling, comment on the current recession to visit a bank that showed Socialist Realist mosaics in its headquarters.

“Authenticity,” was Van Noten’s response when asked to define this collection. These clothes were all about rediscovering the renewable past in order to see a cooler future.

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