“It’s all a little bit overwhelming,” Dries Van Noten told me. On Saturday night, the legendary Belgian fashion designer was working the room before his swan song runway show, hugging and kissing a steady stream of friends and admirers who had come from far and wide to send off the fashion hall of famer into retirement. It was an event with little precedent on the menswear circuit.
Van Noten announced his plans to step back from his namesake brand in March, to “shift my focus to all the things I never had the time for,” as he said at the time. The 129th show and 150th collection of his 38-year career would be his grand finale. Dries Van Noten productions have a way of conjuring a celebratory atmosphere, and on Saturday the party started well before any clothes catwalked down the runway.
But the scene at the defunct factory in La Courneuve was emotionally charged. When Van Noten turned away to greet more well-wishers, he was blinking back tears. “For me, his work is poetry and beauty of course and perfection,” summed up Glenn Martens , the Belgian designer of Y/Project and Diesel.
Though Van Noten will continue to have an advisory role in his company, it’s hard to avoid the sense that an important era is coming to a close. Said Martens, “I think there's really no brand or designer which can compete with his perfection, his beauty, and his mastership. So there’s going to be a gap, no? We're going to miss him.
” “Really, it’s sad for fashion today,” ad.
