A New Dawn for Dries Van Noten
Review of Dries Van Noten Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Brand Re-ignition, Tactile Discovery, Quiet Dialogue
Julian Klausner marked another highly anticipated debut of the fall 2025 season, but as it was one with few surprises those dedicated to the brand – and its founder – could breath a sigh of relief that no grand overhaul or excavation would be taking place anytime soon.
Citing his family’s dressing-up box as his first point-of-entry for developing a love of the transformational power of fashion, Klausner learnt through play how “throwing things together” could be the spark that would ignite his imagination all these years later. Today’s show setting of the Palais Garnier could not have been more aligned, as the highly ornate walls which once housed the Paris Opera (and inspired the long-running musical play The Phantom of the Opera) were a reflection of a show that was just as decorative. The collection was a manifestation of the “tactile discovery” the creative director spoke to in his show notes as if he wanted the Dries Van Noten customer to discover a new character amid the craft.
In this new land of discovery there was an old touch at play with the mixing of feature jacquards in mirrored tones, the foulard and stripe prints layered in abundance, and the surface textures that invited the viewer to reach out and touch the screen, which was exactly the point. IRL is how a Dries collection should be experienced, as it is very much how the new creative director described it, as if playing dress up. Yet, in this grown-up version the clothes never feel as if they are costumey, as if they are wearing you, as you pile them high they will still sit correctly, such is the extensive work that goes into harmonising each seasons textures, tones, and prints. This was something the brands founder knew how to achieve without effort (it would seem), but a significant amount of that skillset has been transferred to Klausner, which is why for fall multi-coloured pailettes peeked from underneath a polka-dot wrap skirt (the underlying brown tones in both pieces creating the harmony previously mentioned), silk jacquard dresses were doubled-up, and an ornate (yet, thoroughly modern-looking) longline waistcoat in a green and yellow wallpaper jacquard was infused with placed embellishment and the inclusion of the simplicity of the handmade in the form of a whipstitch at the collar – this was worn with a glitch-check maxi skirt. This is the kind of red carpet dressing the most recent Oscar’s ceremony was seriously lacking.
Both day and night (the evening looks felt both opulent and at ease, as if they could be worn while shopping for groceries) carry the same heady energy of a time when dressing up was par for the course, and to select the most decadent of fabrics would score you points at the actual opera. While today life may not give you as many reasons to don a white fringed coat or cow-print bomber, there is still reason to celebrate everyday through the ‘personal ritual’ of letting our imaginations run free when performing the simple act of getting dressed.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
The raw, tactile discovery remains at the core of how I see fashion today. This collection is a celebration of that instinct: of transformation.”
Julian Klausner, Creative Director, Dries Van Noten
THE WRAP UP
Dries Van Noten has built its reputation as a brand for those in the know, not just from the fashion sphere but from the arts, music, and theatre. The brand has allowed each wearer to create a true sense of personal style simply by how they choose to put together the pieces – or dress it up in the way they did as a child exploring that box of wonders.
In taking on the mammoth task of replacing Van Noten, after he stepped down from the label he founded in 2024, Klausner has demonstrated that he is not just content with rehashing the brands greatest hits, instead he is raiding his own history to bring into the mix the stories he also has to tell, but having been such an integral part of the brand journey we can see – in this first collection alone – how the creative director is marrying the two to create his own “powerful dialogue between past and future, which is at the heart of Dries Van Noten”.
