‘Japanese, Chinese and Korean,’ said Dries Van Noten backstage of the prints that graced his collection. He said he’d been inspired by Asian costume in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, where he’d photographed historic pieces and transformed them into rich prints that appeared on everything from languid silk dresses to graphic strips on coats.
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He’s not the first designer this season to be inspired by Asia – but his was the most refined and quietly sophisticated of results. The colour was a tightly controlled palette of mostly black, white and turquoise, with the occasional zing of tangerine. The texture – another big story this season – was executed here with bronze birds embroidered on the breast of a grey jacket, golden dragons circling the sleeves of a plain black top, or shiny shards of tortoiseshell that decorated the hem of a jacket and a skirt. Two styles of shoes, high and elegant or low and chunky-heeled – were also in ‘tortoiseshell’ and made you think of precious treasure.
But this being Van Noten, alongside all those boldly-coloured, slippery sensuous silks, he worked his masculine tailoring into coats and jackets which, with their collars turned up and cut from firm thick wool in grey and olive, had a distinct military flavour. As did the khaki parkas sprouting fur collars.
For evening the coats returned to silk and even more tantalising colourful prints – set off brilliantly by the suitably grand and gilded setting of the Paris Mayor’s Palace at Hotel de Ville.
