Versus Hires Jonathan Anderson
November 29th, 2012 @ 11:04 AM
Cacharel Unveils New CEO, in Major Corporate Revamp
November 21st, 2012 @ 00:56 AM
Kane Drops Out of Versus in Major Shake-up
November 20th, 2012 @ 10:14 AM
Pucci’s Madison Avenue Store Debuts Massive Expansion
November 16th, 2012 @ 00:35 AM
Ghesquière Departs Balenciaga in Major Surprise
November 05th, 2012 @ 00:43 AM
Sao Paulo Fashion Week: Between Optimism and Fear
November 02nd, 2012 @ 00:28 AM
London Unveils Men’s Season Schedule
November 01st, 2012 @ 00:36 AM
Azzaro Releases Castello Branco
October 25th, 2012 @ 00:18 AM
Revenue Soars 22 Percent at LVMH in First Three Quarters
October 16th, 2012 @ 00:18 AM
Rykiel Names Geraldo da Conceicao Artistic Director
September 21st, 2012 @ 8:12 PM
Brazil’s New London Pop-Up
September 21st, 2012 @ 7:20 PM
McQueen Men Returning Home to London
September 12th, 2012 @ 7:19 PM
Roitfeld, Mum and Son, Open in Brazil
September 07th, 2012 @ 00:54 AM
Berluti Opens to Big-Time Business in London
September 06th, 2012 @ 3:27 PM
Stefano Pilati Back with a Bang at Zegna
September 05th, 2012 @ 7:10 PM
Hugo Boss Wows in Berlin, Plans for New York
July 06th, 2012 @ 00:17 AM
Salvatore Ferragamo: Crusin’ the Louvre
June 13th, 2012 @ 11:04 AM
Michel Klein Gains New Backer; Launches Sunglass Collection
June 13th, 2012 @ 00:48 AM
Sykes Jettisoned by Aquascutum; Maurer In at Rabanne
June 06th, 2012 @ 00:18 AM
Armani Conquers China, Chastises the Pope
June 01st, 2012 @ 11:53 AM
|
|
Dries Van Noten’s Edgy Departure
Godfrey Deeny
June 25th, 2010 @ 00:13 AM - Paris
We got a very radical change of direction at Dries Van Noten – from chic restaurant and art gallery to funky street and late night club – in his latest men’s collection on Thursday night, June 24, the opening day of shows in the Paris runway season.
The change was significant as Van Noten is such an influential designer - his ideas tend to ripple through boutiques and men’s wardrobes worldwide. This collection will, too.
Van Noten has always been a bold designer when it comes to color, and this season was no exception. But where before he concentrated on reinventing ethnic prints, this season he went hyper abstract with a great series of white dress shirts, featuring blobs, stains and smears of inky backs, bloods and blues in a new dandy expressionism.
His other big idea was a risky use of bleached denim, originally a post hippie style, but a look more recently associated with impoverished Eastern Europe immigrants. However, in a brilliant twist, Van Noten revamped the fabric, adding just the right soupcon of irony to carry off the look. One sweater – linen and mohair torso, bleached denim arms – will feature in magazine shoots worldwide in the next few months.
Smartly, the tailored looks were a tad more reigned in, with a series of sleek linen mix herring bone coats that had great style or arty collarless jerkins and lab coats with curvy leather patches. One imagines that high-street brands worldwide will soon be aping – unfairly - the latter looks, underlining the reach of this Belgium designer.
Van Noten played down suggestions that he had taken a really radical departure.
“I’m always looking for elegance, but using new techniques; and this time with a rawer edge. But it’s still very much me,” Van Noten said.
One of his recent women’s shows featured hyper poised young ladies in the sumptuous and frescoed city hall of Paris. This men’s collection was show in “A Clockwork Orange”-like, graffiti-strewn concrete underpass of a funky riverside building. The models were clean cut, but their steel-toe boots suggested they were ready to rumble, and the soundtrack was a raw instrumental version of The Velvet Underground’s edgy classic “The Gift.”
|
