Colorful, explosive, manic, euphoric… call it what you like: The vibes in the Dries Van Noten collection photos are unmistakably feverish with the impulse to go out and go crazy with dressing up again.
“We just really wanted this moment of joy!” declared Van Noten. “Festivals and all these things came to our minds. We were looking at those moments when you get out, get with crowds, share emotions, and have fun together—whether it’s going to a pop or rock festival, going to a dodgy little club, or dancing in a discotheque.”
One of those moments of gathering—long stalled by COVID—is Tomorrowland. “It’s the biggest dance festival in the world, with all the top DJs, and it’s here in Belgium,” he said. “When you look at the pictures, some people are completely dressed up, some are in easy clothes, but they’re sharing something. That was what I wanted to play with in this collection. Visual fireworks!”
Van Noten is completely spot-on about the feeling that we’ve all had it up to here with lockdown dressing. The desire for going to extremes, fashion’s fantasy revenge on the pandemic is, well, contagious this season. “We did all kinds of crazy experiments—handmade smocking, fluffy things, jacquards, silks. Different types of sparkle—different shine, depths of glimmer. All this stuff,” he said, laughing.
Still, the projection of all this luscious, exuberant craziness was captured on a set during a three-day shoot with Rafael Pavarotti and filmmaker Albert Moya in Antwerp. As much as all his saturated color, vibrantly pigmented prints, and wildly elaborate textiles would have made a feast for the eyes of a show audience, Van Noten judged that the time wasn’t right to leave digital communication mode behind. “I think personally when I see images of fashion shows, it still feels a bit strange,” he said on a Zoom call from his studio. “Definitely for me it was not the season to do it. We had to make the decision in the month of May—and in May the situation was so unclear. I said no, I don’t want to bring anybody [to Paris] at the risk of health.”
Well, Van Noten is far from the only designer not to have “gone back.” He’s not ruling it out for his menswear show early next year, but says, “Then I really hope that we can find a way to do a fashion show in a slightly different way.” What he’s convinced about is that the enormity of the experience we’ve lived through—and the uncertainty we’re still living with—has caused a permanent psychological shift in what we decide to buy in the way of clothes. “Is now the time for sad clothes?” he asked rhetorically. “Or is it that you need something to help you to get through the whole thing? I lean more now to the second. Even if we’re going to have a third or fourth or fifth wave or whatever—it’s still going to happen. Because personally, I think I would prefer do it in clothes like these than in gray and camel and sweatpants.”
