Dries Van Noten stepped down as creative director of his eponymous label in March.
Van Noten then published a letter beginning with "Dear Friends" outlining his plan to step down from the helm of the fashion house he founded in 1986, a label that has had a huge impact on the fashion industry and the way dress the women. The Fall/Winter 2024-25 collection that Van Noten showed in Paris was his last for the women's side of the business, and in June he will hold his final show there during Men's Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025. The women's collection Spring/ Summer 2025, which will be shown in the fall, will be designed by Van Noten's studio team without him.
In his letter, the Belgian designer says: "Now I want to refocus all my attention on all the things I've never had time for. I've been preparing for this moment for a while and I feel it's time to make way for a new generation of talent who to bring their vision to the brand."
A successor will be announced "in due course" and it will be a real challenge for whoever it is to enhance Van Noten's legacy. He is an extraordinary but quiet force in fashion and a designer whose fascinating and intellectual approach to prints, layering and texture is at the heart of much of the "sublime everyday" that fashion designers are addressing and reclaiming today.
He said he will still remain involved with the brand in some aspects, but it's unclear what that means at this time. "To see our clothes around the world, to know that they have a place in your life, fills me with immense joy," Van Noten wrote in his statement. "I'm sure of this: DVN's future remains bright." /BGNES