Dries van Noten – up close

Dries van Noten store in Paris

I’m in Paris for a few days to do some shows, some re-sees, some window shopping and hopefully to get a first look at the Dries Van Noten exhibition. To prep myself I swung by the Dries shop in Quai Malaquais. I managed to take a sneaky photo – isn’t it gorgeous?

What’s funny though is how rare it is to see this much Dries in detail. There are no Dries shops in London and even though stores like Liberty and Harvey Nichols sell shedloads of it, they still only stock an edit of the collection. And because you can’t really buy much Dries Van Noten online, you can’t zoom in to appreciate all the complex workmanship. Basically, nothing beats seeing it in the store, merchandised the way it’s meant to be, and scented with notes of Frederic Malle’s Dries Van Noten scent (which they sell in gigantic bottles).

I discovered that Dries cuts an excellent wide-leg cropped trouser and fantastic day-to-night coats, sold alongside his always-stunning bags, jewels and shoes. The coats and trousers were among the standouts of yesterday’s Dries Van Noten AW14 show. If you look at the shapes, they don’t change that much from season to season, they’re always flatteringly roomy but beautifully decorative. I like the addition of the bold eyewear and flowers to the collection to add just a bit of kook…

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[Catwalk images: Style.com]