Acid trip

Dries Van Noten SS19
By Liam Hess | Fashion | 22 June 2018
Photography Sara Cimino

Has someone been spiking the designers’ drinks? Dries van Noten’s SS19 collection was perfectly in tune with the acid-laced 70s aesthetic that has pervaded this season’s collections. A skiffle soundtrack set the scene for this delightfully wonky show where, as always, picking out buyable pieces is akin to being a kid in a candy store.

It’s fair to say that there are no other designers who can balance up-to-the-minute references with supreme wearability like Dries. Tying the collection together was a motif inspired by the wallpaper of Danish designer Vernor Panton — a graphic, gradated wiggle that resembled an aerial view of a race track — but this really just served as a thread to tie together a kaleidoscopic spectrum of impeccible pieces.

There were shiny trousers and coats that looked at once like treated leather and crinkled plastic, the colour of raspberry sorbet. Loose suiting was given a Dries twist with all-over print and flannel polos came out in burnt orange and khaki, while models stepped out in the type colourful (and deeply covetable) slides fit for bohemian weekends away.

Much has been made of Dries’ recent sale of a majority stake to a luxury conglomerate and this collection served as the perfect riposte: it was concise, crisp, but most of all, self-assured. Even if the structure of his business changes, the confidence seen here suggests that Dries won’t be selling out creatively any time soon.

GALLERYBackstage images from Dries Van Noten SS19





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