Dries Van Noten, Without Dries Van Noten
In Paris, the Belgian label debuted its first collection without its namesake designer, who retired from fashion in June after 38 successful years at his brand’s helm.
Dries Van Noten, the brand, debuted its first collection without its namesake designer at Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday afternoon. Van Noten, the man, retired from fashion this past June, capping off 38 successful years at the helm of his label on his final men’s runway to a teary-eyed crowd. Now, the brand is writing its next chapter: no new creative director has been named just yet, so the imprint’s in-house team designed the Spring 2025 collection you’re looking at above through the lens of the eponymous fashioner’s archives.
The studio designers effectively honored Van Noten’s legacy, one marked by striking prints, rich textiles, provocative color palettes and sophisticated shapes. Many of the former designers’ codes converged “along an optimistic path, extending from the earliest women’s collections through what lies ahead,” as the label’s show notes explained. And they did so in such a chaotic manner—animal prints, electric colors, strong stripes and illustrative graphics all colliding in singular looks—that the voguish end result almost seemed like a magic trick.
Snakeskin trench coats met silky satin shirts and trousers, while slim bomber jackets paired with ornamental skirts and reptilian clutches in what could only be described as true eclecticism. The studio’s formals were crisp—a pinstripe blazer-top hybrid with just one lapel stood out—while vivid eveningwear, like lime green gowns and lace-clad dresses, were eager for friskier endeavors. In all the mayhem, the color story kept the line in some sort of order, as looks transitioned from warm neutrals to romantic purples to earthy hues and to springtime pastels. But it was the lack of real order that sustained the thrill.
Van Noten, who was quietly in attendance near the backstage entrance himself, seemed pleased with where his nominative tag was headed—even if he may have had a hand or two in approving what went down the runway.
See Dries Van Noten’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week coverage.
