On Wednesday, Julian Klausner will take a bow for the first time as Dries Van Noten’s creative director. The 33-year-old Belgian designer, who worked alongside the house’s founder on its womenswear collections since 2018, was appointed to the top seat in December. Van Noten stepped down last March after 30 years.
”We are preparing everything, packing all the boxes, doing the final touches,” Klausner says, speaking on Zoom from the DVN office in Antwerp a few days before the show, which will take place at the historic Opéra Garnier in Paris.
“I was able to know about the venue really early on in the process, which doesn’t always happen. It really influenced the collection very strongly,” he continues, citing the “power of costume” among sources of inspiration. “When I first fell in love with fashion, it was as a child with the costume box. I’m the youngest of four kids, so I had a very full and diverse costume box. The power of a costume and the history of the opera as a central point to culture and society were running through my mind.”
As he steps into Van Noten’s shoes, it’s clear he learnt a lot from his mentor. When asked how the power of costume would translate in the collection, he replies: “I have always heard Dries say it’s very bad luck to talk about a collection before it’s shown.”
