The main purpose Julian Klausner had for this season, in his own words, was to convey a sense of ease and optimism. Thinking about it, that's all Dries Van Noten has ever done. Anytime we talk or think about anything that has come out of the brand ever since its creation, a smile appears on our faces. Walking in front of their store in Antwerp, coming across any archive picture of past collections in our feeds, catching a glance of Dries himself at any fashion event—all the brand does is make us smile. Working with him for so many years, Klausner has learnt the art of making others happy, and now he's spreading the sentiment himself. With his marvellous womenswear debut, after his also-marvellous menswear first collection, he takes the magic and the bliss of the sun, the sea and the summer and turns it into an eternal and tangible body of work.
It only took Julian Klausner one collection to make us trust completely in his vision and way of understanding one of the most particular brands to understand and to get right. Not because it's extremely hard, conceptual or cerebral, but because the emotional and sensitive element is ever present, maybe more than in the majority of the houses. We discussed this in our first article about him, where, after taking and processing his menswear debut, we understood how both he and Dries speak the same language, a series of codes maybe learnt by proximity, but also because there must have been an already existing sensibility in Klausner that made them connect in the first place. With his second collection as the head of the brand, this idea is clearer than ever.
With such a simple concept as capturing and translating into garments the beauty, the joy, the vibrancy and the sense of relaxation of being near large bodies of water when the sun is shining and the weather is nice, Julian took evident and not-so-far-fetched elements and blended them with the house codes and vision, creating a sea of happiness that at least for a moment washed away any trace of darkness or somberness in our hearts. From the clearest and most straightforward references, like the yellowness of the sun or the blueness of the ocean, and pairing them together using specific shades that only the magic of Dries Van Noten colourimetry could ever make work as good as they do, he managed to turn into garments what was only a nostalgic memory of summer. You can now wear the sun on your shoulders as a coat and take the ocean with you in your hands as a bag.
It's in these natural scenarios when the physics and optics work their magic, birthing art from science. The glitter-looking sparks formed on the surface of the sea when direct light hits them are emulated in the pieces with gemstones, both as jewellery and as embroidery; the irregular geometrical shapes seen from under the surface become prints that flow lightly in fabrics that appear to be floating; an iridescent-looking fabric seems to replicate the rainbows formed in water when the sun reflects on them at a specific angle; and the foam we see from the coast as the waves ripple among each other is imagined as delicate and soft ruffles placed as peplums in various pieces, from tops to bottoms, but all at the hips, of course.
Not only were the most intangible notions and concepts we can extract from the beach and the summer brought to life, but also the pieces and elements we all use in this scenario were transformed and reinterpreted in Dries Van Noten fashion. Heavy and solid printed coats slightly oversized in the shoulders and sleeves seem to wrap the body with the same comfort and warmth as the beach towels, and the stiff and sharp construction of the pieces, achieved both by the patterns and the use of materials like neoprene, is reminiscent of the precision scuba or surf attire is made with. Polka dots or monochrome stripes remind us of the retro swimwear we often see in those cartoons or movies from the past, where life seemed simpler and technicolour made it look better.
It seems like every colour Dries Van Noten uses in their garments is made with this same technology. The usual greens, yellows, blues and reds presented by them are like none you've seen; they make you feel like your eyeshine just turned the HD mode on, like suddenly we can revive the magic of our happiest moments. In such times, in such a world, nothing is as valuable as finding moments of joy, things that make us happy and creations that inspire us to keep going. Dries has always been the brand for that, and by the looks of it, it seems like it will keep being it for as long as Julian keeps the legacy alive while building his own at the same time.
