Paris Fashion Week A/W 2012: womenswear collections

Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten never veers far from what he does best, yet manages season after season to twist the print thing and keep the brand evolving just at the right pace. To a single soundtrack - the very haunting 'Lost in the World' by Kanye West - he showed a beautiful and majestic collection, featuring menswear shapes, military details and plenty of pattern. All the prints originated from Japanese, Korean and Chinese costumes found in the collection of London's Victoria & Albert Museum. The 16 antique garments were laid out flat and photographed, then printed onto fabrics like gabardine and silk, re-cut and reconstructed to the point where the original garments were abstract enough to disguise their origins. In other cases the photographs were repeated as panels to duplicate pleats for a trompe l'oeil effect. He did not use (nor did he need) much more detail than this - bar, perhaps, the horn like resin disks used for jewellery and trim on the shoes