Mood board: As the war against plastic intensifies, the show invitations for A/W 2019 have been a soberer affair. Often a thickness of card or the gloss of a font will give away the mood of the season. Ahead of his Berluti debut, Kris Van Assche sent out blocks of wood. A loaf of bread wrapped in a white napkin gave the details of Simon Porte Jacquemus’s menswear show; Virgil Abloh sent a single white glove, studded in crystals for his Louis Vuitton spectacle. In classic, elegant style, Van Noten’s white gloss A5 card gave nothing – and everything – away. After the op-art opulence of the S/S 2019 show, featuring Verner Panton’s sunny clashing colours, A/W 2019 rooted itself in tailoring. Entitled ‘Nostalgia del futuro’, the clothes were said to be a new view on the suit for the next generation. With their cool normalcy, each season Van Noten’s work says something and nothing about the time in which they are made. They are neutrally classic. Handsome and polished. They are unpretentious.
Scene setting: The staging had a starkness that felt correct: a giant industrial hall with a modest lighting rig set-up in square formation. Models walked around the space in elegant, stress-free clothes. The soundtrack, made up of snippets of artists, musicians and luminaries, became an ode to the lushness of the internet. Taken from YouTube, the remixed conversations proved you only need a good editor to save you from information overload. Just as Van Noten does with his fashion.
Finishing touches: The shoulder was sharp but had an ease to it. Van Noten didn’t so much offer a radical new shift to suiting but gave it a subtle update. A narrow waist met a wide pleated leg. Quilted styles had a lightness. Van Noten’s seasonal prints were this time like fireworks – engineered tie-dye patterns over two-button tailoring and outerwear. More traditional techniques were applied to cotton separates and wide collar knits. Down-filled bags in pinstripe wools and cottons were worn matched to garments. §
