I keep in mind the primary piece of Dries Van Noten I ever bought. It was for my honeymoon within the south of France, and I purchased it at Barneys. It was this unbelievable slate grey skirt with this lovely orange iridescent embroidery throughout it, and 24 years later, I nonetheless have that skirt in my closet. I’m not one who’s actually valuable about my garments, I don’t like a whole lot of issues round me and I don’t have a whole lot of space for storing, however I’ve to say, a few of my Dries items I’ve saved over time and I’ve worn them in necessary moments in my life.

A black and white embroidered Dries prime, I wore to the primary restaurant I went to post-Covid lockdown. I’ve this black and purple cocktail costume that I’ve worn an embarrassing quantity of instances to virtually any cocktail social gathering I’ve been invited to over the past 10 years. I’ve this lovely kind of ’20s fringe Dries costume that, if I keep in mind appropriately, that I acquired that March of the 2020 lockdown and I wore it for a big birthday I had throughout Covid in my barn in upstate New York, the place I celebrated with a handful of greatest family and friends. I then wore the identical costume for the Met Gala in 2022. Then there’s the limitless garments I put on to work on a regular basis, however these particular items have been a lot part of particular moments in my life.

The truth of the garments—the proportion works for me. I’m a tall lady, I hate a waistline. His garments are tremendous stylish with out attempting too onerous. Satirically, I’m not a lot a print and sample individual, however the proportion and form of his garments, and the colours… He has probably the most unbelievable sense of colour of just about any designer on this planet, in my view. “The Grasp” as my good pal designer Victor Glemaud and I check with him. But it surely’s not simply the garments, Dries resonates with me as an individual.

I keep in mind this exceptional exhibit he did in Paris in 2014, “Dries Van Noten: Inspirations.” He took a small group of us via and afterwards Anna [Wintour] commented about his generosity, how beneficiant he was as a designer. As a result of the exhibition was not a lot about Dries however an homage to all of the designers and artists who’ve been so influential to him. To me, that was so typical of him. He’s not a designer who sought the limelight. He’s at all times struck me as somebody who loves making garments. In actual fact, when he was right here receiving CFDA Worldwide Designer of the 12 months Award, I had the dignity of sitting subsequent to him at that dinner, and he advised me he by no means wished his equipment enterprise to be bigger than his ready-to-wear enterprise as a result of he actually considered himself as a ready-to-wear designer. No different designer is telling you that.

In a season the place we’ve been speaking about multigenerational casting, reality-based garments, and dressing for actual girls—that’s one thing that Dries has carried out perpetually. He’s at all times been that designer. He has followers of his garments, however he doesn’t go after a star base only for the sake of getting celebrities in his garments. That’s not what’s been necessary to him. As a girl, you at all times really feel supported by him; he needs to decorate girls and that comes via.