The sky moved slowly from dawn to dusk. The clock kept ticking. Someone might have been doing some construction through the wall at one point. The backdrop sounds and scenes to Dries Van Noten’s FW21 show will be familiar to almost anyone currently housebound, and it might not be surprising to learn that the bulk of the collection was collaborated by a team working from home themselves.

It seemed the whole collection had undone its belt, or gone full Zoom call and missed the trousers altogether. The cuts were roomy. Coats were blankety. Shirts were shirtdresses. And of course, there was the knitwear: sweaters were scarves, and legwarmers melted under trouser cuffs.

As a forecast of a season ahead, Van Noten seems to suggest that we’re getting thoroughly acclimated to the joys of comfort. With the Belgian designer’s help, we might just develop it into an art. Van Noten has a particularly inquisitive relationship to fabrication, and here the lightest-gauge wools, cottons and shells, and quiltings, bolsterings and D-ring fastenings were implemented to perfect that languid drape. It’s a talent to look so slouchy and so pulled together.