A Design Film Festival: DRIES
Photo credits: www.driesvannoten.be
Dries Van Noten is a notable Belgian fashion designer and an eponymous fashion brand. He's no stranger to the fashion industry and in 2005, the New York Times described him as "one of fashion's most cerebral designers." As one of the most successful members of the renowned ‘Antwerp Six,’ the third-generation designer has built a profitable fashion business, known for its intelligent prints, on his own terms. Here are some of the looks from his latest AW17-18 collection in case you haven't seen his work before.
Dries Van Noten AW17-18
Photo credits: www.driesvannoten.be
Dries Van Noten AW17-18
Photo credits: www.fashionela.net
Anyway, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend A Design Film Festival Singapore yesterday which featured a documentary on the influential designer, titled DRIES. Before watching this documentary, I have seen Dries Van Noten's designs previously when I was doing my internship and searching for inspiration for my projects but I never understood the motifs on motifs clash which is the fashion label's signature. Maybe because I am not really a fan of too much prints as I like to play it safe with my fashion choices and only will wear one print at a time.
So A Design Film Festival Singapore was held at Capitol Theater, a really pretty retro looking theater I've always wanted to visit. I really love how many buildings in Singapore blend the old with the new, giving modern buildings a touch of nostalgia.
Scroll on to enjoy the snaps I took throughout the night.
The documentary was truly eye opener for me and changed the way I look at things, especially when looking for inspiration inspiration. I remember this quote mentioned by Dries, "A lot of inspiration comes from the things you don't like, things which are ugly, things that are completely wrong or things which hurt your eye." That really gave me a bigger perspective in the way I think because I tend to always look at pretty and nice things for inspiration and always ignore unpleasing looking things because I never thought it could bring me any inspiration at all. I mean, most people love looking at pretty things because it brings us joy, but I guess sometimes ugly things can trigger inspiration and probably innovation to improve on something and make it better. That is one thing I would really take note of and try to implement it for my project next term.
When I was watching how Dries Van Noten did the designing and styling for his collection, at first I didn't understand it at all. "Like why was he putting so many motifs on more motifs. Isn't it too motif heavy?" I thought to myself. But when Dries explained and said, "All my collections are very personal and I put emotion to it. I don't believe that clothes are fashion, clothes are just something you put on to cover yourself, fashion is a way of communicating who you are. Whether it is clothes, shoes, bags, products we all know are going to continue even more, everything I stand for which is craft and easiness, re-laxness in fashion. I make clothes people can wear; I don't make art." Wow, absolutely wow. From that moment, I understood why he's such a successful, notable designer today.
To be honest, I never thought I would enjoy the documentary as much as I did. I'm not majoring in fashion design but it was really cool to see what happens behind the scenes from production to the show. I always thought that the head designer would have a huge team doing all the work and he only had to design. Yes, I know it sounds so silly but that was what I thought. I never realized how much effort, hard work and constant changes and improvements till the final look would be completed. I guess it's really different when it comes to high end fashion, which is why it's priced that way. One part I remembered really well from the documentary is Dries' partner (also a designer for Dries Van Noten) mentioning that he wishes they could take just 2 weeks off or skip a season, just to take a break and enjoy life. That hit me deeply because I thought that he was having a really great life with a beautiful house, loving partner, cute dog and successful career, and what more can he ask for? Turns out he still had to sacrifice his freedom.
Overall, this documentary doubtlessly made me understand that nothing good comes easy. Even famous, successful people don't always get everything despite the picture perfect life they show to the world. I guess living life to the fullest is just about finding the balance between what you do and what you'd love to do.
