Dries Van Noten loves majesty. He's an entertaining designer - not in terms of gimmicks, but in terms of authentic drama. As his show began a huge rig of lights descended slowly from the ceiling - a literal, if new, way of 'lowering the lights' to set the mood. It was a bold gesture, quiet and clean in some ways (no huge fanfare, no fuss) but direct. That's appropriate for this collection; it was forceful yet subtle at the same time, showy but never complicated or stuffy. That's Van Noten's greatest skill: he can show layer upon layer, embellishment upon embellishment upon embroidery and it never feels over-worked or forced. That considered nonchalance underpinned the A/W 15 show. A lesson in layering, it saw cargo shorts worn over trousers, kilts layered over joggers, and fur collars placed over sporty gilets.
Despite the decadent surface adornments we've come to expect from Van Noten, there was something intriguingly industrial and utilitarian about those garments, from the beige and navy colour palette to the reflective stripes that conjured up visions of police uniforms or road signs. The jewellery, which from afar almost looked like it could have been picked up from a hardware store around the corner, added to that mood as did that heavy layering - it smacked of men off to work, putting on their own clothes over their uniform in preparation for a commute. It may sound like a banal vision but Dries always manages to find something extraordinary in the ordinary.
