Belgian designer Dries Van Noten’s Spring/Summer 2018 runway took place within the old headquarters of the newspaper Libération in Paris’ La Défense district. Among cardboard boxes and folders, a man with careful intellectualism and a muted avant-garde wardrobe went down the runway. The show was divided into two parts – opening with a number of monochrome outfits, everything started with ocher and earthy tones. This little-used color palette for men brought out terracotta, summer green, and sand. “There’s a good ambiance in Paris. I wanted to change colors, see where I could push my exploration of colors for men. A color palette that could interest even the navy blue freak that I am,” mentioned Dries Van Noten.
The figurehead of the Anvers Six staged his favorite signature: his iconic jacquards, fantastic cashmere motifs, and floral prints with nostalgic allure. They all came together to highlight a new male silhouette. Far from the current trends of drowning the body, Dries Van Noten inspired brand new shapes for coats and jackets that perfect and caress the body. “Larger, but not excessive. Enveloping,” he explained.
DVN’s look for next season is designed around a thoughtful elegance, well-constructed, apparent, and never forced. These are eternal pieces that brought the designer once more into a royal fluidity and a dangerous yet highly desirable mix-and-match. The freedom here resides in the pairing of prints so near and dear to the Belgian designer, who magnificently sketches out the equation for the elegance of the future with a game of contrasts enriched by memories of lives past.
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