Dries Van Noten S/S 2017

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Mood board: Dries Van Noten’s house codes are well known. His unwavering focus on relaxed tailoring with sportswear influences, the pinstripes, the camo, the antique embroideries, the graphic prints – all of them were there in the audience at his S/S 2017 show. For spring, Van Noten’s artisanal aesthetic assumed the view from Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire, the country home of William Morris. It is a view filled with threadbare tapestries and artfully knitted textiles. The collection used fabrics and volume as ornamentation.

Finishing touches: The clothes were sporty, relaxed and loose. An ode to utopians, libertarians, craftspeople, draughtsmen, textile and ceramic art – the organic, raw and handmade loomed large. Five antique tapestries were photographed and printed onto wide-legged trousers, double-breasted jackets and voluminous outerwear. Denim jeans were also reconstructed and bespoke calligraphy created by artist Pokras Lampas was embroidered tone on tone.

Scene setting: Inside a large concert hall located in the Bercy area of Paris, a huge wall made up of automobile headlights stood as a backdrop to the show. Created by the French theatre company Royal de Luxe, the wall has been touring across Europe in a series of colossal puppet shows and was most recently installed on the Antwerp Theaterplein. The team of inventors, stuntmen, poets and scrap dealers, led by Jean-Luc Courcoult, share Van Noten’s unshakable reverence for the art of craft.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.