Dries Van Noten at Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2019

Mood board: Dries Van Noten has operated proudly as an independent designer in his native Belgium for more than three decades. Early this month however, he sold a majority stake of his business to the Spanish-based group Puig and he will remain Chief Creative Officer. There was no obvious affect to his S/S 2019 show. The silhouette had a rigour that felt modern and confident. There were no discernible sports/streetwear references, no logos, no fugly trainers. Van Noten is still comfortably outside of the seasonal clatter. The shapes were all taken from workwear. Dialled down, they become canvases for seasonal play with print, colour and textile.
Best in show: Form versus function as utilitarian uniforms are subverted with unexpected textile. Oversized parkas, roomy coveralls and casual double-breasted tailoring come in easy cottons and linens and in high-shine, glossy nylon too. The look is unfussy. Models wore toned down accessories in pony skin. Sandals are in raffia and rubber – bumbags in high-shine nylon.
Team work: Van Noten unveiled a creative partnership with the estate of Danish architect and designer, Verner Panton, whose pop psychedelic interiors and furniture defined much of the Scandinavian design we love today. And he’s having a real moment. In Milan, Miuicca Prada and AMO reissued Panton’s ‘Inflatable Stool’ from the early 1960s, installing rows of them as the seating for her S/S 2019 show. Van Noten worked with Panton’s estate too and was granted permission to adapt some of his textile designs. The collection used photographic versions of Panton’s iconic works including the trippy Welle (Wave) pattern of undulating colours dating from the 1970s. Special labels sewn into the garments detail the collaboration, which is the estate’s – and fashion’s – first.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
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.
-
London Design Festival 2025: live updates from the Wallpaper* team
From 11-21 September, London is celebrating design in all its forms. Here's the latest news, launches and other goings-on from London Design Festival 2025, as seen by Wallpaper* editors
-
Inside Ardbeg House, the whimsical Islay hotel from the Scotch distillery
‘Luxury with a laugh’ is how Russell Sage describes his designs for the new hotel, where each room draws on island and whisky lore
-
Luxury cruise line Explora Journeys will set sail in Asia for the first time
28 voyages across Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore will mark the luxury travel brand’s debut in the region
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at fashion week, from blockbuster debuts to rising stars
The Wallpaper* style team pick their highlights from the upcoming fashion month, a definitive season as the industry’s major players start their latest chapters, beginning in New York tomorrow
-
How Bureau Betak transformed the runway show: ‘Our currency is emotion and memory’
Pioneering production company Bureau Betak has masterminded some of the most inspiring runway sets of the last 30 years, dazzling both real-life guests and an ever-growing virtual global audience. Hugo Macdonald meets the people behind the magic
-
‘Never copy the past’: how Nicolas Di Felice is taking Courrèges into the future
At Courrèges, artistic director Nicolas Di Felice is marrying radical thinking, raving and reinterpreted minimalist codes to give the French fashion house a new dynamism. Hannah Tindle heads to Paris to meet the designer
-
Ten boat shoes that put a playful twist on the footwear classic
From Miu Miu’s viral riff on the nautical staple to those that are studded, slip-on, square-toed or two-tone, the Wallpaper* team select the best boat shoes of the season – a style set to be ubiquitous over the coming months
-
Glenn Martens’ thrilling Maison Margiela debut was a balancing act between past, present and future
The Belgian designer made his debut for the house last night with a collection that looked towards medieval decoration for a new expression of opulence
-
Art meets perfume in cross-disciplinary fragrance series Nez 1+1
Talents from film and fragrance come together to create Ansongo, the latest scent resulting from a creative matchmaking project by perfume revue Nez
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expect
Five moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season
Between the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut