Dries Van Noten: Cinematic and Centennial
Dries Van Noten, like his collections, is a glorious contrast. A fashion designer famed for his cult runways at Paris Fashion Week, but who has shunned every money-making trend of the fashion market. An artist who creates collections lauded for being a visual feast of statement print and cacophonous colour, yet who dresses daily in understated ensembles. A perfectionist, who has opened up the chaotic world of designing and draping for all to see.
A third-generation couturier, Van Noten stemmed from a bloodline of highly successful tailors: his grandfather having introduced his home city of Antwerp to the concept of Ready to Wear fashion, turning second-hand clothes inside out, reworked and reimagined to capture the very imaginations of Belgium’s elite; his mother an avid collector of antique lace and linen, and his father the proprietor of a line of upscale fashion boutiques.
Accompanying his father on trips to view collections in Milan, Dusseldorf and Paris, Van Noten’s affinity for fashion design manifested itself voraciously, inciting an enrollment into the fashion design course of Antwerp’s Royal Academy. Graduation brought with it the inception of the Antwerp Six – an avant-garde fashion collective comprising Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee, and in the years that followed, the sestet became renowned for bringing a radically distinctive aesthetic to catwalks worldwide. Their daring earned them a series of career breakthroughs, from the mutual triumph at the British Designer Show in London’s Olympia, through to the exportation of Van Noten’s individual collection of blazers, shirts and trousers to Barneys, New York, and Whistles, London.
From there, Van Noten’s eponymous label continued to make waves, surging into Paris and Milan, where his ardor for dramatic fabrics became his alluring insignia. Today, in addition to boutiques in Antwerp, Paris, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong, Dries Van Noten works in partnership with more than four hundred boutiques dotted across the globe: New York, London, Berlin, Kuwait, Qatar, Moscow, Tokyo…and on.
Yet even one of the most successful independent designers in the world is subject to the demands of a constantly evolving public thirst.
“I just think people are looking for realness and authenticity now,” said Van Noten in a recent interview. It’s a statement that gives an indication, perhaps, of what has spurred the notorious perfectionist to, for the very first time, allow a filmmaker access into the inner workings of both his creative process and home life. The resultant documentary, titled Dries comes only after three hard-fought years of persuasive bargaining from German director, Reiner Holzemer, who became eventually enshrined into Van Noten’s world for 12 precious months.
Holzemer’s journey was a unique one, which he openly expresses and shares. “All I witnessed was as enigmatic as it seemed contradictory, as novel as it seemed reassuringly familiar. How could a man dressed daily in an almost uniform of plain marine blue or beige chinos with a white shirt be at the origin of such internationally and creatively acclaimed, colourful collections? This brand-new world I was entering conjured as much wonder as apprehension for the elusive freedom of beauty combined with the rigor of obsession. My instinct told me that Dries Van Noten was that interesting man to be portrayed in a documentary. And I was even more convinced of it after having done some research on him and his eponymous brand. I found out, that he plays an outstanding role in the fashion world. He does not advertise and nevertheless is being praised for his collections by the entire fashion press. He is not the usual fashion character who lives an exotic, dramatic or scandalous life. Always even tempered, he is the opposite. Neither does he follow the trends of the fashion market (e.g. conceive more collections a year, sell more accessories, shoes, bags and perfumes than garments). These trends might be leading to more sales and margins but, most of the time, also go along with a loss in quality and creativity. And this is not what Dries wants. He truly loves his craft, which is the creation of garments. He feels the need to remain the main actor in the creative process of his collections – choosing fabrics, inventing shapes and prints – instead of only being the art director of his company.”
I committed to shoot alone with an occasional sound-man and agreed to test shoots to see how things felt. Our first foray into documenting this life was backstage of a fashion show and a fitting session at his Antwerp studio. With time Dries forgot the camera was rolling, settled into being himself. In the end, I followed him for a whole year. Sometimes I felt very welcome, sometimes really not. But, having all that in mind, I think I came as close to him and his world as it is possible. And I hope that the result is a very personal insight into the life and career of a unique fashion designer of our times.”
Capturing each precise step in the designer’s creative journey to conceiving four collections a year, it is a documentary that gives unprecedented and exceptionally poignant insights into the life of one of the era and industry’s most unique figures and is a fitting time for Dries Van Noten, who presented his milestone 100th show as part of the AW17/18 Ready to Wear season in Paris.
And if the past 12 months are indicative of Van Noten’s future trajectory, this depiction too can be applied to the man himself.
Copenhagen Fashion Week and CPH:DOX will present the world premiere of Dries on Saturday 18 March 2017 at the Bremen Teater, Copenhagen. Tickets are available here.
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