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Dries Van Noten Has a New Creative Director and Here’s Why It Matters

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Dries Van Noten Has a New Creative Director and Here’s Why It Matters

Earlier this year, one particular retirement announcement within the fashion community broke many hearts. Dries Van Notendecided to step away from his role as Creative Director of the eponymous label he founded in 1986, explaining in a gracefully written leaving statement that he wants to focus his time and energy on “all the things I never had time for.” He also noted, “I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand.”

Today, six months after Van Noten’s emotional final runway show in Paris, that new generation is stepping up. The label has appointed Julian Klausner to the position of Creative Director, who will show his first collection for Dries Van Noten during the January menswear season.

Klausner isn’t a household name, but he has worked at the fashion house since 2018 and understands the essence and ethos at its core. Klausner was overseeing the women’s collections at Dries Van Noten and before that, he was a junior designer at Maison Margiela. He also attended and graduated from La Cambre in Brussels in 2016, asike Van Noten did and is also a fellow Belgian. According to a statement this morning from the house’s founder, “He is not only a talented designer but also a clear choice to take over after my departure.” He added, “His deep understanding of the brand and its values will ensure a seamless transition and a bright future.”

Van Noten has always put vision first. Even after selling a majority stake of his brand to Puig in 2018, the designer never compromised his singular approach to making clothes, to dressing a certain kinds of men and women who believe that prints are meant to be clashed and that style is a vessel for boundless curiosity. That Van Noten chose to promote someone within, to elevate a person whose name hasn’t been splashed across the myriad of headlines this year about who should go to the big European behemoth brands and who shouldn’t, who deserves to be at this brand and not, isn’t just brave, it’s absolutely the right thing to do.

There is great talent everywhere in this industry, but so often the race to the top spots of the most iconic (and profitable) houses becomes something more akin to a celebrity-making game–take X designer with Y resume, put a ton of power and money behind them to hope customers want to buy into what they’re making. Often, their aesthetic, their singular codes, however powerful, can get lost in the eagerness to put brand over vision. Van Noten’s label has never made branding the bottom line. The designs don’t need marketing; they speak for themselves, and they do it in the covetable textures, patterns, and silhouettes the house is known for. To be a quiet force doesn’t mean you’re making any less of an impact. With humbleness and idealism, Van Noten has always proven that an investment in imagination, in the spirit of the clothes, is the only way forward in fashion. By appointing Klausner, it will no doubt push the Dries Van Noten brand even further ahead.

Brooke Bobb is the fashion news director at Harper’s Bazaar, working across print and digital platforms. Previously, she was a senior content editor at Amazon Fashion, and worked at Vogue Runway as senior fashion news writer. 

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