What’s Hot (14.3.19)

Image | March 14, 2019March 12, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

Not Just Flowers. Dries Van Noten AW19

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

For the autumn-winter 2019 prints, Dries Van Noten and his design team went for a ‘field trip’ to the designer’s garden (and it’s not just any garden – you must witness it in the ‘Dries’ documentary on Netflix!) in order to take photos of flowers. The photos were taken last October, so quite naturally the flowers weren’t all that bloomy and fresh. Still, what attracted the designer the most were their imperfections: black spots, visible diseases, dried petals. Don’t expect basic floral prints, but rather, a strangely romantic, darker take on the very unlikely trend of the A/W season. Turtleneck dresses, satin blazers, robe coats and shirts were adorned with these flowers, while the colour palette was kept in deep greys, lilac and burgundy. Many compare this collection to Prada this season – where flowers were as well the key point – but at Dries Van Noten the effect is much different. Styled with long leather gloves, loosely-fitted pinstripe suits and faux fur stoles in extremely bright orange, the feeling was edgy, chic eccentric, but very feminine in an unmistakable Van Noten manner.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Men’s – How To Be. Dries Van Noten AW19

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s one of those sober, darker Dries Van Noten collections, that still has a lot to say. It seems that the Belgian designer asked himself: at time when world politics is in its sad state, how should a civilised, well-cultured adult comport himself? The autumn-winter 2019 collection has the clear answer: dress well, think clearly, keep a sense of what’s important when all around are loosing their heads. You might say its just a bunch of (what seems to be perfectly tailored) blazers, coats and suits, but this outing was a wardrobe of a level-headed man who knows what’s really right. It’s refined, but unpretentious. Wise and mature. Loosely fitted, cropped, pinstriped pants, duvet shawls in monochromatic tie-dye and an elegant, belted cardigan in beige are the items I’m drooling over. It’s not a buzzy Van Noten show, and it never intended to be one. With all the men’s shows getting bigger and more entertaining, Dries kept it rather quiet. But silence is a statement as well, sometimes even more meaningful and deep than thousands of euros thrown into a showy, Insta-worthy venue.