Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten was born in Antwerp in 1958 into a multigenerational family of tailors. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1981 with the rest of the Antwerp Six and founded his own house in 1986. The vocabulary, almost immediately, was the opposite of Ann Demeulemeester's: dense floral prints, eastern textile references, color blocking, lavish embroidery, and the kind of optimism in pattern that Belgian conceptualism otherwise refused. Van Noten ran the house for almost forty years as designer and majority owner — an exceptional duration in modern luxury. He never advertised, never showed couture, never held a global press conference, and resisted multiple takeover offers. The 2024 retirement announcement caught most of the industry off guard. Julian Klausner — a Belgian designer trained at La Cambre and a six-year veteran of Van Noten's own studio — was named creative director and presented his first collection in October 2024. The brand is now wholly owned by Spain's Puig (which acquired a 57% stake from Van Noten in 2018 and the rest in 2024). The Antwerp Het Modepaleis flagship — a former 19th-century department store on Nationalestraat 16, where the house has been since 1989 — remains a fashion pilgrimage site. Van Noten himself continues to live in the same farmhouse outside Antwerp he has owned for forty years, surrounded by the gardens that have appeared as references in countless collections.