Dries: the Dutch Treasure of Fashion

The Netflix documentary 'Dries’ follows Belgian designer Dries Van Noten in his creative process of designing and executing his artisanal collections…

Dries first spoke of his his relationship with the term ‘fashion’ explaining that the term now means something that over within 6 or less months. There is no longevity to fashion anymore as it is under appreciated. Dries thinks fashion is an “empty word” and believes that we should invent a new word for fashion, a word that is “more timeless”. He went further in saying that he doesn’t want to make “fast products”, rather something to continuously appreciate, something which is “growing with you as a person to become a part of your personality”. He envisions his pieces as having the ability to become an extension of the character. Suzy Mekes supports this by adding “there’s a certainty (to Dries garments), but the certainty is yours” to adapt to yourself.

Emotion and passion are the driving forces for Dries collections, with each look being meticulously curated and critiqued by him and his team. Simultaneously, Dries also values coincidence when it comes to finding marriages between fabrics. His collections are centred on a story he wishes to tell, with fabric development playing a massive part in how that story is told to the world. The film showed one of his team travelling to India to see over the quality of the fabric production. As embroidery is on of Dries staple elements, the embroidery is done purely by hand. This shows just how thoughtful Dries is when it comes to delivering passion in his garments. The fact that people make the fabric means “they put something of themselves into it”. Authenticity really is woven into the fabric of the brand.

Dries describes his style as taking on influences from realism, classicism, and the appreciation of ‘bad taste’. Contrast, tension and clashes are paramount to the designing of his collections. Without conflict in his work it wouldn’t be Dries’ signature style. Dries can be “attracted by the kitsch, the cliches, the folklore; everything inspires him (Geert Bruloot)”. This explains why Dries’ collections truly are a melting pot of styles and perspectives. Even though Dries explores contrasts, he never compromises the balance of a design. Dries “systematically finds the perfect balance of colours, proportions, and silhouettes (Pamela Golbin)”, it’s organised chaos.

Runway shows are particularly important to Dries as they are his way of communicating his vision, not just the garments. It’s in “the light, the sounds, the way the models walk, their make-up, and hair”, the collective aesthetic of the show. He views shows holistically, wanting to tell an uncompromised story to his audience. The magic of a show is created by people seeing the honesty and passion within your work, “it comes from your heart”. It is clear that Dries really does work from the heart, he brings so much emotion to his collections. This attitude is rather uncommon in today’s fashion world as many collections are churned out in an effort to reap the most publicity. However collections like this have nowhere near as much integrity as Dries.

I think Dries oozes creativity, unable to stop looking and thinking of possibilities. I love that he values authenticity so highly in his work, designing from the heart. He is unconcerned by outside critiques as he believes in staying true to himself and his style. He loves greatly, thinks intensely and designs flawlessly.

“…he is a treasure and has to be treated as such (…) people like Dries keep the fire alive” - Iris Apfel

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