There comes a point in the season when the brain starts joining up the dots between collections or, in the case before us here, the trail of tarnished sequins. Something in the detail of what Dries Van Noten did today—arranging gold, copper, carnation, and pale blue paillettes in stylized, winglike patterns—also resonated across the Atlantic, with similar flashes of decoration by Marc Jacobs and Rodarte. A sense of the faded glamour of old-time movie stars (or perhaps just the fusty remains of Old Hollywood costume departments) is seeping into the edges of several shows.
At Dries Van Noten it looked great, glimmering on the bodices of long, printed 1930s midi dresses, or decorating white shirts and placed on the shoulders of sweaters. A latter-day Katharine Hepburn would do them justice. Whether there are or aren’t some parallels between ’30s and ’40s escapism from World War II and our need to gaze in the opposite direction from today’s conflicts, Van Noten didn’t overtly draw attention to them in his notes. Still, there was the background of the show to contend with: not the gilded grandeur of the Hôtel de Ville this time, but a derelict industrial warehouse with rusting girders, accessed through a crumbling concrete loading bay choked with weeds.
Not that there was anything melancholy or down-at-the-heels about the collection itself. Essentially it was a steady continuation of Van Noten’s love of rich traditional fabrics like jacquards, brocade, and shot silk, used this season in intriguing clashes of purple, yellow ocher, kingfisher blue, and watermelon. The addition of tattoo-like patterns on gloves, socks, and turtlenecks seemed to refer the eye to the Asian and tribal threads that run through the histories of such materials. There will be plenty more of the Van Noten’s customers’ favorite pantsuits, coats, blouses, and skirts next season—if not very much to wear on a sunny summer weekend or holiday.
