To face the future—even the present—takes optimism, wherever it is you can find that strength. Perhaps that’s the reason there’s a thread about the psychedelic phase of the ’60s running through some of the menswear collections. Miuccia Prada went to late-’60s daisy print and furnished her show space with inflatable plastic stools adapted from the late Danish interiors designer Vernon Panton. Purely coincidentally, Dries Van Noten went down the same wavy, schematic, patterned path blazed by Panton’s mid-century Scandinavian mode. “I wanted a collection which was really fresh, and about color. So we looked to [his] estate, and asked for permission to use the prints digitally, rescale them and blow them up.” Each garment with a direct use of Panton’s work is to be co-labelled. Why the attraction? “Because sitting in those interiors, you got a different vibe and look to the world.”
Well, perhaps it was more indicative of Van Noten’s mood that the opener was a boy in a pair of swim shorts and sandals—he’s always been a go-to designer for real and practical clothes, and this collection was a mix of vivid summery escapewear, and the utility wardrobe he consistently offers city-dwelling workers. His easy-to-wear suits and the workwear he specializes in—boilersuits, cotton drill coats—were offset by the optimistic color-spectrum prints.
The big question of the night, however, had to be asked. It was his first public outing since the news that he’s sold a majority stake in his company to the Puig Group. How’s he feeling? Happy. “It was something we were planning for a long time. As partners, we have the same feeling, the same dreams, because as a company we have a future. I think that I proved that 32 years of independency can work, and now I can prove also that being part of a group can work.” Good vibes, then. If it’s going to allow him a little more time to kick back in his new house on the Amalfi coast and in his garden in Antwerp this summer, we can guess what he’ll be wearing.
