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.
