DRIES VAN NOTEN BEAUTY LINE 2022

Dries Van Noten likens smelling his perfume to eating olives. ‘The first one makes you go, “Ooh, what is this?”’ he says over Zoom from his Antwerp studio. ‘But after that you always like it. I think you have to learn to appreciate things, and sometimes you have to learn to appreciate my vision of beauty.’  

That beauty can (and often should be) consciously attained rather than instantly perceived has been a defining feature of Van Noten’s work since he debuted his first fashion collection in 1986. The Belgian designer is a connoisseur of contradictions, with a matchless ability to synthesise sartorial opposites – slouchy streetwear silhouettes and impeccably tailored couture. Collections are influenced by the high-brow (he once based an entire season on Elizabeth Peyton’s painting, Democrats Are More Beautiful (after John Horowitz), 2011) and the mundane (prints made from iPhone photos taken by his team), while styles from disparate pasts (19th-century dandies, 1970s Glam Rock) are scavenged and reworked to create distinctly modern pieces. 

The most crystalline expression of Van Noten’s penchant for ‘impossible combinations’ is inarguably his use of colour and pattern. He produces all of his own textiles (the portrait shown here was taken in his store room) and his particular brilliance as a designer lies in his ability to combine textures, patterns, and colours that would, to anyone else, seem inherently wrong. Take, for example, his latest S/S 2022 collection, which paired psychedelic silkscreened button-ups with flapper-esque fringe outfits of seafoam green, tangerine, and royal blue. 

The newly launched Dries Van Noten Beauty sees the designer translate his unique understanding of colour and texture into a new medium, and create a beauty line that stands apart from anything else in the industry. ‘There’s so much beauty out there. Is there still something we can do?’ Van Noten asked himself before launching the line. ‘For me, the answer was yes, we can tell a different story. Because with my fashion collections, I am a storyteller. My clothes make you feel certain associations and connections, because I work with all those contrasts, all those opposites.’ 

As of now, the collection comprises perfumes, lipsticks, and companion accessories, including compact mirrors, combs, and pochettes. The fragrance collection features ten genderless scents, each created by a different perfumer and each its own unorthodox interpretation of traditional floral fragrances. Flowers have been an enduring source of inspiration for Van Noten, with his collections regularly featuring prints, colours and forms informed by his own gardening. Before the noses got to work on the fragrances, Van Noten invited them to explore the sprawling, bucolic garden he maintains on his 19th-century estate outside Antwerp.

Images courtesy of Dries Van Noten.