With no runway plans, Dries Van Noten shot a film in Antwerp, Belgium in celebration of his new men’s collection. It was shot in the city streets, capturing the everyday life of Antwerp. 

The gender neutral collection consisted of oversized, yet lightweight construction. As Van Noten takes chances on trying new methods in the way he conducts his brand, you can only wonder what the future of Dries Van Noten might look like. “We were in, I think, the fifth lockdown here in Antwerp when we started on this collection,” Dries Van Noten told British Vogue. “And when I talked with my team to discuss what it would be about, it was really about outbursts; we’ve had it, and now we want to have fun, we want to party, we want to enjoy things, we want to go into the city and we want to see people.”

His team made a shared folder of smartphone photos taken around the city, from industrially scenic crane landscapes to strobe-lit club shots via moody pool hall milieus, which were integrated as prints on paneled parkas and silky shirts. The collaged images on the garments were shot against a backdrop of city locales, which would appear like it was lazily put together at first, but when you look closer you’ll see the magic behind it. 

“Normally, when you start a collection, you think, ‘What is it going to be about? What are the shapes, what are the dyes?”. Saturated colors, 200-gram silk suits, and monochromatic sets gave a sense of freedom to the collection. And that’s something we’ve learnt now: it doesn’t matter. I just want to make clothes and combine them,” he said on a video call from Antwerp.

“We shot it in public, so people were watching and commenting. ‘Oh, is that a Rubens I see on that T-shirt? Is it really,” Van Noten said. For people that live there, the locations where the film was shot are recognizable. Many people stopped to watch and questioned what in the world were the models wearing, but Van Noten fed off of that energy.

The biggest source of inspiration for this collection came from his home in Italy. “Building a house in Italy also helps!” Van Noten said, referring to the 17th-century tower “built nearly in the water” that he and his husband, Patrick Vangheluwe, have been renovating since before the pandemic. 

Since the start of the pandemic, Van Noten has been optimistic about how the pandemic shook up the fashion industry. As of now, Van Noten has no intention of returning to pre-pandemic procedures and doesn’t mind if producing films is more complicated than putting on runway shows. 

“I don’t dream of doing a men’s and a women’s fashion show again every season. I think it would be more fun to do a mixed show one season, a video the next season, an installation the season after that, and then go back to a show. It’s going to be like that, I think.”

To see the rest of the collection, watch the short film below: