Dries Van Noten-Beyond the Conventional

Renowned designer Dries van Noten is known for his daring visuals. It is not that he tries unusual themes but he visualizes beyond the conventional. When compared with his contemporaries, van Noten turns out to be someone who likes to try out methods and themes that were never tried earlier and would have remained so. What is striking is that he has a knack for that. The Dries van Noten man collection and the Dries van Noten shirt line are great examples. Another notable aspect about this talented designer is his ability to collaborate with experts of varied crafts to create designs that incorporate the best from both the worlds. That is why you will notice brilliant traces of crafts like typography, visual art and photography in his designs.

The 2012 spring summer women’s wear collection by van Noten dwelt heavily on photography. For this collection van Noten borrowed the theme from the ‘Lightscapes’ photo series by ace photographer James Reeve. Van Noten’s idea was not simply to merge two crafts but to create something by collaborating fashion and photography. He aptly named this collection as ‘Garments, Lightscapes’.

According to Reeve, the theme of this particular photo series was darkness and most of it was shot at twilight. Taking a cue from Reeve’s novel idea, van Noten conceptualized a design with an element that was very new to the fashion world. He admits that the prints that he used are usually not meant for fabrics, but he did it. Therefore this collection reflects things like etchings from the 18^th century and butterfly wings (technical drawings). The unique thing about this collection is that it does not simply reflect the photos created by Reeve but rather a vision that is an amalgamation of two crafts coming alive on pieces of clothing. A fine example is the collared jacket from this collection that features a photograph of Beirut’s skyline taken from the sky by Reeve.

For fashion goers it is indeed a delight to collect van Noten collections. As described above, van Noten’s other remarkable clothing lines like the Dries van Noten shirt line and the Dries van Noten man collection too have a fantastic fan following. It is evident that van Noten’s idea behind his endeavor is to create the best that is possible beyond the conventional. Hopefully he will continue to churn out more delightful collections in the future.