Photographed by Craig McDean, Vogue, March 2016
I keep in mind the primary piece of Dries Van Noten I ever bought. It was for my honeymoon within the south of France, and I purchased it at Barneys. It was this unbelievable slate grey skirt with this lovely orange iridescent embroidery throughout it, and 24 years later, I nonetheless have that skirt in my closet. I’m not one who’s actually treasured about my garments, I don’t like a number of issues round me and I don’t have a number of space for storing, however I’ve to say, a few of my Dries items I’ve saved through the years and I’ve worn them in necessary moments in my life.
A black and white embroidered Dries prime, I wore to the primary restaurant I went to post-Covid lockdown. I’ve this black and pink cocktail gown that I’ve worn an embarrassing quantity of occasions to nearly any cocktail social gathering I’ve been invited to over the past 10 years. I’ve this lovely type of ’20s fringe Dries gown that, if I keep in mind accurately, that I received that March of the 2020 lockdown and I wore it for a big birthday I had throughout Covid in my barn in upstate New York, the place I celebrated with a handful of finest family and friends. I then wore the identical gown for the Met Gala in 2022. Then there’s the infinite garments I put on to work on a regular basis, however these particular items have been a lot part of particular moments in my life.
The fact of the garments—the proportion works for me. I’m a tall woman, I hate a waistline. His garments are tremendous stylish with out attempting too laborious. Sarcastically, I’m not a lot a print and sample particular person, however the proportion and form of his garments, and the colours… He has essentially the most unbelievable sense of colour of virtually any designer on this planet, in my view. “The Grasp” as my good good friend designer Victor Glemaud and I seek advice from him. Nevertheless it’s not simply the garments, Dries resonates with me as an individual.
I keep in mind this exceptional exhibit he did in Paris in 2014, “Dries Van Noten: Inspirations.” He took a small group of us by way of and afterwards Anna [Wintour] commented about his generosity, how beneficiant he was as a designer. As a result of the exhibition was not a lot about Dries however an homage to all of the designers and artists who’ve been so influential to him. To me, that was so typical of him. He’s not a designer who sought the limelight. He’s at all times struck me as somebody who loves making garments. In reality, when he was right here receiving CFDA Worldwide Designer of the Yr Award, I had the honour of sitting subsequent to him at that dinner, and he advised me he by no means wished his equipment enterprise to be bigger than his ready-to-wear enterprise as a result of he actually considered himself as a ready-to-wear designer. No different designer is telling you that.
In a season the place we’ve been speaking about multigenerational casting, reality-based garments, and dressing for actual ladies—that’s one thing that Dries has achieved perpetually. He’s at all times been that designer. He has followers of his garments, however he doesn’t go after a celeb base only for the sake of getting celebrities in his garments. That’s not what’s been necessary to him. As a girl, you at all times really feel supported by him; he needs to decorate ladies and that comes by way of.
