Mood board: Dries Van Noten called out the decadent lifestyle of Italian heiress Marchesa Casati and her lover, writer Gabriele d’Annunzio as his autumn inspiration, which evocatively accounted for the lashings of leopard print (Casati famously kept a big cat for a pet), gender bending tailoring (ties, Bullion insignia and coats of arms included), decadent ‘Robe de Chambre’ dressing and extravagant malachite-hued evening gowns, which are far from the Van Noten norm.
Finishing touches: Faux fur or amethyst-hued, feathered collars finished the majority of the season’s richly layered looks, while snakeskin boots with a ball and cork heel and masculine, crocodile clutch bags rounded out the accessory equation. Then just as the show’s gentlemanly tailoring was sealed with a stately tie, the collection’s evening looks were adorned with jewelled pendants made from slabs of semi-precious stones that had a commanding regality to them.
Team work: Special mention must go English illustrator Gill Button for her brush strokes this season. The Belgian designer stumbled across Button’s portraiture work on Instagram and she was quickly commissioned to hand paint each of his 1,000 show invitations with intense, shadow-heavy eyes.
