Dries van Noten: The Quiet Maestro of Print, Color and Craft

Celebrated for poetic textiles and elegant restraint, he became a global force on his own terms.

Last runway show from designer Dries Van Noten. Credit: @GQ

For nearly four decades, Dries van Noten built something rare in fashion: a respected, successful brand without the trappings of excess or spectacle. His creations drew from art, travel, and nature, captured in rich prints, harmonious colors, and subtle layering. He never chased fame or cultivated a personal brand. Instead, he quietly left his clothes and his deep respect for craft.

From Legacy to Personal Vision

Born into a tailoring family in Antwerp in 1958, Dries was immersed in fabric before he could read. His grandfather stitched while his father ran a menswear shop. He enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1981 alongside legends who would become known as the Antwerp Six. This group was instrumental in resetting the global fashion map.

In 1986, Dries launched a menswear collection in London. Soon after, Barneys in New York carried his designs. He introduced women's collections in 1993 and opened his first boutique in Antwerp by 1989. All the while, he chose the ready‑to‑wear path over couture, preferring garments that real people could buy and live in.

A Signature Style That Speaks

What sets Dries apart is his masterful harmony of color, print and texture. He selected unusual fabrics,silks, wool blends and combined influences from Bollywood, Japanese motifs, Flemish painting and flea‑market finds .

His pieces feel sensual yet smart. A floral print might be layered over striped tailoring. Or velvet meets chiffon. Each garment is both a mood and a message. He once said, “Clothes are something you really do with the heart. Do your best to create something you believe in”.

This quiet craftsmanship landed him the International Designer of the Year award from CFDA in 2008. He earned other honors, including exhibitions at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2014 and a barony in Belgium in 2017.

Collections: Poetry in Print and Form

Dries’s collections are stories told through fabric and color. He draws from a global and personal visual archive: Flemish painting, Japanese motifs, Bollywood, and memories from flea‑market finds.

Autumn/Winter 2019 – The Garden Collection

Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s line “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,” Dries walked through his Antwerp garden in October, photographing flowers even those in decay for prints. They appeared on wool, silk, chiffon, and quilted coats in rich tonal greys, pastels, and neon accents. The result was refined tailoring softened by imperfect blooms, fleeting beauty in fabric.

Fall/Winter 2019 Ready‑to‑Wear

Dries opened with austere grey pinstripe suits that embodied power and calm, before introducing floral prints that felt “edgy” and slightly unsettling, flowers that were beautiful yet wounded . The music echoed this sensibility: Roy Orbison one moment, Belgian accordion the next.

Spring/Summer 2019 Menswear

He collaborated with the Verner Panton estate to reinterpret psychedelic prints for silk shirts, knitwear, and joggers. The result was optimistic, retro‑futuristic and playful, balanced by subdued base tones.

Across each season, Dries layers color and texture while maintaining elegant structure. He once said creating prints is a process: they must be tested on different weights and fabrications before making the cut . This thoughtful process is why every pattern feels intentional and soulful.

Credits: @WD and @Elle

Reimagining the Runway Experience

Dries turned his shows into sensory narratives. In the mid‑90s the Paris audience experienced rose‑petal showers, fireworks, even parading models on bicycles to cathedral steps. These events were never flashy stunts. They were atmospheric invitations to journey through his inspirations.

During the pandemic he designed by heart once more, using iPhone snaps from his team in Antwerp as print inspiration. He translated ordinary moments, dogs on laps, nightly dinners into prints that felt both personal and universal.

His stores followed the same ethos. In Los Angeles he staged exhibitions featuring vinyl records, ceramics and art, stripping away transactional decor. He didn’t want retail to feel like selling but like discovering.

Independence and Legacy

Even under the glamour of awards, Dries stayed independent. He never advertised. He rarely used influencers. In 2018, Puig acquired a majority stake, but he kept his creative control.

In June 2024, Dries announced his retirement from the helm of his namesake brand. He presented his final menswear show in June 2025, and passed the torch to longtime colleague Julian Klausner. Klausner brings respect for identity while injecting new perspectives.

But Dries will remain involved with his fragrance line, textiles and the future narrative of the brand remains close to his heart.

Beyond Fashion: The Garden as Sanctuary

His Antwerp home and gardens, once a neglected 1840s property, became a living laboratory. Flowers in varying states of bloom, even decay, were photographed and turned into prints for his autumn 2019 collection. Dries believed imperfections carried truth no plant should be perfect, no print should be meaningless. He showed that beauty isn’t about perfection. It is about honesty.

A Quiet Revolution in Fashion

Dries van Noten shows us another path. No self‑promotion. No relentless seasonal churn. No chasing fast trends. His brand thrived because it believed in mystery, in patience, in craftsmanship.

He crafted a world layered with culture where prints speak of travel, where clothes are archives of emotion, where garments are loyal companions, not disposable statuses.

Credit: @FFChannel

Where Fashion Goes Next

As Julian Klausner carries forward the house’s future, the challenge remains: can the brand preserve its poetic soul while evolving?

Fans hope so. Many already speak of Dries as a designer’s designer. His lasting legacy may lie not just in the clothes he made, but in the values he stood for: independence, respect for craft, generosity of spirit.

Final Thought

Dries van Noten did not need a personal brand. He let his garments and gardens be the message. In a world that treasures noise, he proved that quiet elegance can speak louder than any billboard.