BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

After Dries Van Noten's emotional 2024 retirement from his house of 38 years (see his final collection here), Julian Klausner is now Creative Director. And this Spring Summer '27 collection at Paris Fashion Week marks his third menswear collection for the house.

Klausner has actually been with the house since 2018 as the head of womenswear. He has said that the task of taking over the menswear division as well seemed daunting at first but he has proven himself a worthy successor to Van Noten. And for this collection, he actually brought a sense of womenswear to the fabric choices and garments. "We looked at the world of lingerie, thinking what lingerie can mean to menswear, and that informed a lot of the fabrication," he said. The result is a gorgeous assemblage of fluid, weightless layers and a sunset-inspired color palette. Diaphanous silk duster coats, crepe shirts, semi-sheer shirts and shorts, embroidered beaded camisoles, fluttering floral scarves as shirts or wraps ... and large paillettes that add shimmer. It feels like a collection you could live in all hot summer long.

https://www.driesvannoten.com/

"The Antwerp Six" at MoMu - Fashion Museum of Antwerp

To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the group, there is an exhibition about the work of the groundbreaking Antwerp Six, now through January 17th, 2027 at MoMu (ModeMuseum), the Fashion Museum of Antwerp. It explores the oeuvres of Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester (previously here), Walter Van Beirendonck (previously here), Dries Van Noten (previously here), Dirk Van Saene, and Marina Yee, a group of highly influential avant-garde Belgian fashion designers who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in the early 1980s. In 1986, they rented a camper van and drove to London to show their individual collections at London Fashion Week. The British press, in true British fashion, cold not pronounce the designers names so they referred to them collectively as The Antwerp Six. It stuck and they took London and the fashion world by storm.

One can't exaggerate the importance and impact of these designers whose work in so many ways goes beyond fashion. So it is exciting to see a show dedicated to and celebrating their revolutionary contributions.

Fashion journalist Anna Roos van Wijngaarden beautifully describes for fashionunited.com the six designers tableaux in the exhibit:

From that perspective - the Six as the foundation of the fashion city - they also had to have a say in their parts of the exhibition. We start with Dirk Bikkembergs, who deliberately waited a year to graduate solo to focus all attention on himself. The fashion image of the hyper-erotic, powerfully built sportsman originates from him. Raf Simons was inspired by it. MoMu's selection is shown on a large screen. Bikkembergs was also the one in the group who best understood the power of publicity, according to Bruloot [Geert Bruloot was an early advocate of the group and helped launch them onto an international stage]. In the opening room, there was already a copy of his famous catalogues in which model Michel De Windt intimately embraces a pair of hiking boots.

We meet Walter Van Beirendonck in the flesh - or rather, his virtual clone, a talking face on a small screen hidden at the right height in an outfit of his own design. He is contemplating his career in dialogue with a robot from his own fantasy world, Puk Puk, surrounded by his 35 outfits that are just as 'poppy'. “They even call me the last punk,” says that Van Beirendonck.

Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee were the most politically engaged, according to Bruloot, and logically worked on the border between fashion and art. “With Van Saene, there was always humour involved,” he says. In his designated space, five models circle on an automatic conveyor belt; he has given the audience funny faces, painted on boxes and bags. In the background, we see carefully chosen excerpts from five 'défilés', with free-spirited models in fur coats and checked blouses.

For Marina Yee, who passed away in 2025, a special tribute had to be created. The MoMu team photographically cleared out her studio, numbered everything, and rebuilt it. “She loved rubbish,” Bruloot knows. This is also evident from the copy of her workshop, full of trinkets and material tests.

Dries Van Noten is positioned among his virtuoso colleagues as the king of strong finales. For days, Bruloot worked with him to select the best images for the big screen - kill your darlings, his mentor adds. The scenography also shows how consistent his collections have been, with recurring rococo and chinoiserie prints, expensive fabrics, and strong craftsmanship.

The choice of Ann Demeulemeester to end the exhibition is deliberate; Bruloot knew it would result in something calm and strong. Her entire oeuvre, displayed on a glossy black floor, comes across as a single collection. With this, she immediately shows how much you can do with the colour black. Demeulemeester's pieces are so well-constructed that they could be worn season after season; retailers liked that. On the opposite wall hangs her favourite supermodel, 'Louise', framed in portrait form. Alongside her, the brand's style is explained: romantic, dark and androgynous.

Walter Van Bierendonck at The Antwerp Six Exhibition | Photo: Stany Dederen

Dirk Van Saene at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Stany Dederen

Ann Demeulemeester at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Dominique Maitre for WWD

Dries Van Noten at The Antwerp Six Exhibit
Photo: Dominique Maitre for WWD

Marina Yee at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Stany Dederen

Dirk Bikkembergs at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Dominique Maitre for WWD

Dirk Van Saene show invitations at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Stany Dederen

Exhibit entrance at The Antwerp Six Exhibit | Photo: Stany Dederen

If you are in or are going to be in Belgium, you might want to see this landmark exhibit!
More information and tickets at the link below:
https://www.momu.be/en/exhibitions/the-antwerp-six

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

After Dries Van Noten's emotional retirement from his house after 38 years (see his final collection here), Julian Klausner is now Creative Director. And the FW '26-'27 collection he presented at Paris Fashion Week holds true to the DNA of the house with an emphasis on the mixing of subtle and complicated patterns, along with a mastery of unexpected colors and combinations. But he deliberately brought in the knitwear section of the house, noting that it had been a while since a collection featured knits.

His inspiration for the look of the collection is rather sweet: he was thinking of young men transitioning from home to life on their own in college and what those first new steps look like with a cobbled together (and maybe thrifted?) wardrobe...and putting things together with an eye toward looking "grown up" but still with an exuberance of youth. Klausner said, "In this second men’s collection, I wanted to explore the idea of coming of age. Not in a dramatic or romantic way, but praising the joy of new beginnings. The unfolding of possibilities; the naivety and the honesty of the first experiments with self out of the comfort zone. It’s the idea of coming of age, growing up from being a teenager, exploring the world, leaving the home, taking the things you love with you, hand-me-downs, your granddad’s coats, your childhood blazer."

Indeed, there is an echo of the younger schoolboy here (at a quick glance, the skirts can be confused for schoolboy shorts) but coupled with pieces like pencil coats and neck ties. I adore how 70s this collection looks without actually referencing the 70s. The striped knit shirt in Looks #3 and #4 make me think of shirts I wore that looked just like that...oh, but that was many years ago. Also of note is the mash-up of Faire Isle prints on sweaters, as though four or five different sweaters had been cut up and patched together in vertical sections. And I am entranced by the paper bag pants with a drawstring, shown with a contrasting top section so that it looks as if one is wearing a cummerbund or a peplum attached to the shirt above...see Looks #16, #18, #21, and #22. At the close of the collection, we see the Faire Isle motif return but this time beaded on coats and sweaters in Looks #32 to #35.

And let's take a moment to look at some amazing shoes from this collection...flat lace ups in mock snakeskin and other patterns. I covet each of them.

https://www.driesvannoten.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

After Dries Van Noten's retirement from his brand last year, the house has been helmed by Julian Klausner who joined the van Noten team back in 2018 as director of womenswear. He has worked alongside the master so is uniquely placed to continue the DNA of the house but with a personal twist. And this he has done for his first SS '26 menswear collection shown at Paris Fashion Week.

Van Noten was an absolute genius with color and pattern--and the mixing of color and pattern. No one else did it quite like him but unsurprisingly, Klausner has made a somewhat seamless transition. Look at the tones and shades of the colors and how they work together even though they might seem not to. The patterns are, as always with a Van Noten show, glorious. The florals are nearly abstract and I love them on looks #3 and #4, #26, #28, and #29. Stipes get thrown into this mix in ways that seem a bit retro, especially in the colorways seen here. The addition of sequins onto pieces that are heavily embroidered (see look #6 and #32) is a prelude to pieces that are just flat out awash in paillettes and bugle beads (the top in 333 and all of #34). Cummerbunds got sequined as well. And the thing I love the most in this collection: the sarongs. *sigh* Gorgeous.

https://www.driesvannoten.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten is retiring and this is his last collection. Surprising that a designer with Van Noten's status would retire...usually designers are forced out of their positions or, not to be indelicate, die, naturally or otherwise. But it was nice that he announced his retirement before this collection so we could all feel the importance of what we are seeing.

Van Noten is one of the Antwerp Six, a group of fashion designers who trained at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts between 1980–81, composed of Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs, Marina Yee, and of course Van Noten (there is a sort of Fifth Beatle, an unofficial member of the Antwerp Six, Martin Margiela). Actually, Demeulemeester retired from her own house in 2013 so there is a bit of precedent. But still, after 38 years and an avalanche of incredible collections, Van Noten is leaving.

And his Spring Summer '25 collection is a high note on which to go out. It shows his deft hand at pattern and color mixing, in a restrained, whisper of a way (peach, adobe, and soft pistachio). On a runway strewn with real silver leaf which fluttered and stirred as the models (mature and young!) walked the runway, David Bowie's words from the documentary "Moonage Daydream" rang out: "Time: one of the most complex expressions. Memory made manifest. It's something that straddles past and future without ever quite being present." As his spoken word section concluded, "You're aware of a deeper existence, maybe a temporary reassurance that indeed there is no beginning, no end," it was clear that the emotion of the occasion was being imprinted on the space itself with the silver leafing being tramped down while other pieces escaped, a possible metaphor for time and all we know. This is the great power of creation which occupies the work of strong designers...it applies to all the arts but the basics--food, clothing, shelter--can turn into exquisite cuisine, haute couture, and interior design which touches something in us that goes beyond shelter, turning a space into a sanctuary.

This menswear collection was shown on men and women...Van Noten said, "It’s all one big happy world, and everybody can wear whatever they want." Sheer fabrics, python (on shorts, boots, shirts!), brushed wool fused to neoprene, a crinkled polyamide, a foiled chatoyant material that reads silver or gold depending on the light, and a gorgeous section of large scale florals printed using suminagashi, an ancient Japanese dying technique, all on Van Noten's exquisite cuts and tailoring (the way he cuts a simple trench coat  *sigh*). Please do take a few minutes to look at the video, with a soundtrack of remixed Bowie music, to see, hear, and feel the beauty. Thanks for 38 years of exquisite clothing, Dries!

https://www.driesvannoten.com/