By Muhammad Jaffar
What does plaid say to you, other than Scotland? Coziness, perhaps, and tradition, and comfort, all might come up. So too, might a place far west of northernmost Britain—Seattle, birthplace around the late eighties of grunge. And if you are Dries Van Noten, you might have still another answer up your casually rolled sleeve: spring—next year, specifically. His show, powerful and compelling—all the more so because those qualities were conveyed in such a light, airy manner—was an ode to plaid, a print both rebellious and romantic, opening with a purple and blue tartan chiffon shirt over a white tank, a long lean pencil skirt embellished with large, blowsy black and brown blooms, and houndstooth stiletto slingbacks with a distinct whiff of the early sixties.
Van Noten then proceeded to show another 54 looks, of which a huge percentage included variations on the checked stuff, worked in different colors (lilac, green, dusky pink, gray), fabrications (cotton, silk, chiffon, a metallic cotton), and myriad different pieces. There were easy skirts with gently controlled volume, hourglass jackets, belted pajama tops, lean trousers, diaphanous floor-length skirts, sleeveless sweaters faced and backed with contrasting plaids, even a fifties-esque couture-like narrow dress, a peplum exploding on its front, and worn with, yes, a checked shirt underneath. But there was still more here that was distinctly non-plaid, sometimes mixed in, other times left to stand alone: dressing gowns casually belted, pleated floral chiffon skirts, loose masculine blazers, and romantic 1930s-lingerie bloom-strewn slip dresses, the Courtney to Kurt’s plaid. To accessorize: those ladylike shoes, sometimes also pumps and mules, hefty silver chain necklaces or ones that looked like rolled-up silver scarves turned into chokers, and white sunglasses, barely a shade different from those worn by Mr. Cobain.
So where does this all take us? Well, to a textbook Dries Van Noten show, where the deeply personalized idea of styling, a glorious layering of pieces, colors, decoration, and prints, come together to form a satisfying cohesive whole. Yet, in other ways, this talented and sensitive designer presented us with an emotional odyssey. At this moment, with everything from unease and uncertainty to full-blown horror eddying around us, Van Noten seemed to want to locate a sense of enveloping comfort in spring, rendered in weightless, floating, uplifting ways. Of course, that’s just one interpretation. You could also simply look forward to enjoying his wonderful clothes next year.
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