Don’t ask Dries Van Noten what his favourite flower is. To the Belgian fashion designer and devoted gardener, choosing between them all is an impossible task. ‘Witch hazel, rhododendrons, peonies, roses, dahlias… Don’t make me decide!’ he says as we peruse his latest capsule collection together at the brand’s HQ in Antwerp. The space has been transformed into something of a greenhouse for the collection’s preview, and where the team would usually sit down to work, hundreds of plants and flowers have taken the place of their desks.
The largest collaboration between Dries Van Noten the brand and luxury fashion e-tailer MyTheresa thus far, the range has been made with the escapist spirit of summer at its heart. It’s a cornucopia of colour and print, the latter of which features Van Noten’s beloved blooms in abstracted forms. There are also references to India’s Holi festival, which takes place in March each year to mark the beginning of spring. ‘We work so closely with small textile factories in India,’ says Van Noten. ‘We wanted to ensure this collection honoured Indian craftsmanship as well, so a lot of the fabrics were produced there using traditional techniques.’
