Paris Fashion Week S/S 2012: Womenswear

Dries Van Noten

Print and décor are essential elements of the Dries Van Noten DNA. One collection can feature anything from 10 to 100 different prints. This season he used a random edit of stock photography of cityscapes and jungles, botanical sketches and a series of nightscapes shot in London, Beirut, Los Angeles and Las Vegas by the young London-born Marseille-based photographer James Reeve. Van Noten chops up these prints and patterns, takes them out of context and uses one image on the yoke, something else on the sleeves, front and back of a garment. By mixing the scale and colour (in this case plenty of monochrome) he constructs his own language of decoration. Spain provided reference for monochromatic toreador embroideries while shapes like swinging backs, ruffles, nipped-in waists and padded hips referenced 1950s couture. Often, however, this was executed in cotton - like the white gabardine swing back biker jacket - so it all felt new