Naturally, most of the 800-plus attendees have 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 outdoors Antwerp. As friends 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 serious moments from Van Noten’s profession. I discovered Russell Westbrook staring up on the projection. The hooper was there, he instructed me, as a result of Dries Van Noten was the primary Paris Vogue 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 mentioned. 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 mentioned. “Ever since, I’ve been impressed by what he’s accomplished.”
Martens and Rogge have 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 instructed me of her Belgian countryman’s resolution to make a swish exit. “He appears very pleased.” Rumor had it that Martin Margiela had made the journey from Antwerp; I used to be instructed he was not on the invite checklist, which did nothing to cease me from looking out 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 vogue 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,” mentioned Thom Browne, who famous he was attending his “first and final” Dries Van Noten present. “It’s about celebrating his profession,” he mentioned.
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 mentioned it was “time to go away 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 mentioned with fun. “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. “After all, I hope it’s going to be Meryll,” he added.
For her half, Rogge mentioned, “I am hoping it’s going to be somebody who’s going to care about the home and maintain the home.”
Round 10:00, a number of lengthy bass notes reverberated by means of the manufacturing facility, signaling it was time to take our seats, which have been organized alongside a breathtakingly lengthy runway plastered with leaves of ultra-fine silver foil. Because the lights got here down, friends put their arms round every others’ shoulders. Thus started the one vogue present of the week that no one needed to finish. Silver leaves swirling round their toes, a forged of Dries Van Noten fashions from throughout the many years wore their buddy’s remaining assortment. The primary mannequin out, carrying 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 seemed to be on the verge of tears. In accordance with casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro, he and Van Noten tracked down most of the long-retired faces on Instagram, and each single one mentioned sure.
“Time… some of the 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 which means of endings as he put collectively his swan track assortment, however he didn’t wish to finish on a best hits retrospective. As a substitute, Van Noten needed to recommend a manner ahead, to suggest new concepts about tips on how to costume elegantly at this time and tomorrow—the identical as he’s accomplished 149 occasions earlier than.
He did so by means of the strategies which have lengthy made his work so quietly pleasant: in mild structured tailoring, lengthy and unfastened, that labored with and never towards the physique. In imaginative layering, with translucent organza tops and trousers juxtaposed towards 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 means of the lineup. And, in fact, in sample, with massive 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 set 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 eventually a jacket, the material fluid like mercury. Then the nearer, a swooping tuxedo coat, golden trousers, and humble, strappy sandals. Poetry, Dries Van Noten type. With 800 individuals on their toes 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 yet another grand gesture. As he exited, he raised his palms yet 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 final word retirement celebration playlist. Everybody gathered their emotions and streamed towards the bar. The message was apparent. Somewhat than cry, Dries needed us to bounce.
