Dries Van Noten at Momu

Belgian fashion designer Dries van Noten’s creative references have, over the years, drawn from a wide source in the art world. His Autumn Winter 2009 Women’s collection was inspired by Francis Bacon’s paintings, while his Spring Summer 2009 Men’s Collection was based on a painting by Elizabeth Peyton, Democrats Are More Beautiful (after Jonathan Horowitz), 2001.

More recently, his Spring Summer 2015 collection paid homage to Sir John Everett Millais’ 1851-1852 masterpiece Ophelia, and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with fluid silhouettes channeling a bohemian look that effortlessly combine hippie chiffon with luxurious brocade and silk.

“Dries van Noten: Inspirations,” first presented last year at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, is now opening at Momu (ModeMuseum) in Antwerp, and the richly curated exhibition provides an opportunity to learn more about the designer’s creative processes and wide sources of inspiration.

For the exhibition, Van Noten selected creations by innovative couturiers, like Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, as well as artworks by important artists like Bronzino, Victor Vasarely, Damien Hirst, and Kees van Dongen, in order to put his own creations into context.

“For me art evokes emotion, and I try, in a different way, to create emotion with the clothes that I design,” he told BLOUIN Artinfo in 2013. While stressing the influences in Van Noten’s work, the exhibition also illustrates his own distinctive stylistic vocabulary and the duality of his designs.

Dries van Noten: Inspirations runs through February 13 to July 19 at the Momu (ModeMuseum) Antwerp.

as first published in Blouin Lifestyle Magazine