Dries Van Noten : Avoiding the Fashion Circus

Master colorist and member of the Antwerp 6, fashion designer Dries Van Noten fielded questions from Valerie Steele (FIT's director and chief curator) as well as from a slew of design students at the Institute’s Kate Murphy Amphitheater this morning. While I missed the luncheon honoring Van Noten yesterday (seemingly a blessing in disguise, as word has it host Maggie Gyllenhaal did most of the talking for him), today offered a rare glimpse into the mind of one of fashion's most exciting talents. The designer still lives in his native Belgium, a fact which he cites as integral to his creative process: "living and working in Belgium creates a healthy distance from the whole fashion circus. You look at fashion in a different way: a more healthy way."

Van Noten also managed to clear up any misunderstandings about his only wearing DVN original designs: “I shop a lot I think. I want to see every store that opens. I like to buy and sell; that’s what making clothes is about. I love to shop and discover. I don’t wear clothes from other designers maybe out of laziness. It’s easier to go to my own warehouse and just pick something out.” As for advice for the aspiring designers in the audience: “everything has to be smart. There’s no time to be stupid.” And, as hard as it may seem, embrace all obstacles, Van Noten muses, recalling attending fashion design school at a time when Belgium had no fashion scene whatsoever and when his professors thought there was one designer ("Coco Chanel") and that “jeans are for poor people.”