ANTWERP.- This exhibition on Belgian designer Dries Van Noten presents his multiple sources of inspiration. The unprecedented project is an invitation to take an intimate and emotional journey through his personal universe and reveals his créatif process.

"This is a work of introspection, a reflection on myself and the way I work, both as a designer and in my relation to art and the other areas I love.

“What I do is neither a photocopy nor an homage. It is all about being inspired by someone else’s work and transposing it into a different setting, an operation that is as subjective as it is personal. I do not want to use art simply as decoration, as a mere backdrop. The aim is to link different elements together, thereby describing how I go about creating things.”

“Some of the associations between garments and images occurred while I was looking through the storerooms housing the Les Arts Décoratifs collections, i.e. a posteriori. Most of these associations however relate to the work of a fellow artist/designer, sparking my imagination and triggering the creative process.”

Dries Van Noten was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1958. Independent fashion designer, entrepreneur, a pragmatist and also a maker of dreams, a connoisseur, and —by his own admission—a man still in love with his work, even after nearly thirty years. His links to the fashion trade go back to his grandfather who opened the first shop for men’s ready-to-wear in the interwar years. Dries’ father carried on the family tradition, opening a store for designer labels. In 1977, Dries Van Noten enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and started working freelance. In 1986, he launched his own company. His first menswear collection was presented in London alongside the “Antwerp Six”, an informal group of young designers who were soon symbol of the rise of Belgian fashion. Since 1993, he has presented his ready-to-wear collections for men and women in Paris. A collector of eclectic influences, Dries Van Noten juxtaposes his sources of inspiration, playing them off each other to create startling combinations.