“To dream is to be young forever…” reads a wistful line in the show notes for Dries Van Noten’s latest fashion epic, itself a stab at what really lies in the tunnels of our inner psyche.

This season the Belgian designer has been musing hard on the final section of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, a cautionary tale in the overindulgence of nostalgia. After all, who doesn’t love a trip down memory lane? It seems that in the wake of the pandemic, though, we’ve been a little too reliant on using the warmth of the past to circumnavigate the hellish present – enter Dries. 

While Proust might’ve believed “a true paradise is a lost paradise”, preferring to give himself over to the scenes and characters of old photographs, the Belgian designer’s FW22 collection dared to dream about the paradises we’ve yet to encounter, those waiting for us in spirited daydreams and on future travels. It’s through this false and hazy dream state that the Noten woman comes to life, in clashing animal prints that shouldn’t work, but definitely do, in puffed sleeves that speak to lost crystal treasures lurking in dark caves, and in bejewelled tunics that pair off with butterfly-emblazed turtle necks.

Silhouettes were dramatic, curves emphasised through colourful sleeves and bold piped edges. One coat looked as if it’d been totally Sara Shakeel-ed – covered head to toe in iridescent flecks of glitter – while another’s tactile, embroidered surface appeared like lily pads lazing on a pink lake. How we got here isn’t important, but indulging in the fantasy of Noten’s dalmatian-printed silks and drifting freely into a flamboyant nirvana, certainly is.