Fall 2013 Ready-to-Wear: Dries van Noten

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One of the strongest stories I women s wear this season

has been the interplay between extreme masculine elements

and extreme feminine elements.

Dries Van Noten nailed that story today with his

oblique salute to Fred and Ginger.

I really started with the men s wear collection,

the big coats, big pants, big shirts, flat shoes.

Besides that I wanted to have them rather extreme

feminine elements so I went really to ballroom dancing,

Fred and Ginger, ice skating, so embroideries and

nearly too bright colors with stones on it which are

really too big and feathers everywhere.

I think all the adjacencies and the juxtapositions

of the feathers on the men s wear fabrics,

all of the layering and the white shirting

over it with feathers, all of the combinations

were just unexpected and stunning.

With Dries it s always a proposition.

All the layering I think is great because you can really

make the collection yours.

You look at this and you re like

Oh, I would do it like this, I m gonna integrate that

in my wardrobe and make it look fantastic.

[Tim] The rigor of men s wear contrasted very obviously

with the luxurious fluff of women s wear, in a way.

Yes, absolutely.

Dries I feel like really embraces that kind of duality,

very often and it made me think about how I am personally,

and I think, you know what, I think a lot of us

have that in us.

We re not just necessarily one or the other.

That s a very modern way of being now.

I m always nervous about every collection

but maybe this collection made me even a little bit

more nervous than normal.

[Tim] Why?

Well it just people don t really expect to see feathers

in my collection, or my fashion show and then also I really

just want to go all the way with it, why not?

[Tim] Then at the very end you show a woman in

gray flannel pants and a white shirt,

just about as mannish as you could get.

It s the world.

There are men, there are women, there is night and day,

but luckily enough, there is also love.

(applause)

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