Dries Van Noten's cabinet of curiosities
Published: January 23, 2007
By Suzy Menkes
PARIS: With its blackamoor statue prancing in the window, its Mongolian rug patterned with dragons, its gleaming Japanese cabinet and its Murano glass chandelier, it could be just another of the upscale antique dealers who line the Left Bank of the Seine.
But Dries Van Noten's new Paris "home" at 7 Quai Malaquais (opening Wednesday) is an expression of the Belgian designer's aesthetic that is a paradigm for our fashion times: an original, one-off store in which everything from a gleaming marble console to a stalwart 1970s desk appeals to the senses.
"It was a dream opening in this location," said Van Noten, referring to the spacious, high-ceilinged former bookstore and its view across the river to the Louvre.
"I wanted it to be extremely luxurious with the atmosphere of a neighborhood," he said. "It is something very personal. And I wanted to respect the place. Who am I to change it? I want to keep it and treasure it and pass it on to the next generation."
The same could be said for the eclectic objects that Van Noten and his partner Patrick Vangheluwe have garnered from flea markets. If the sky- blue sofa arrives from America in time, it will join a baroque bridge table that once belonged to the aesthete Charles de Bestegui, a Chinese bird of paradise patterned rug, Ottoman velvet pillows from the 1920s, a decorative Italian screen, a Napoleon III boulle table and intriguing pieces from Belgium. They include a 1950s abstract painting by Marc Mendelson in the same pistachio green as the silk curtains surrounding a tiny glass conservatory-cum-boudoir.
This glamorous boutique mirrors Van Noten's 20-year fashion trajectory from ethnic to luxurious. While his designs and prices are still relatively down-to-earth by big brand standards, the fabrics are deeply researched and the embellishment increasingly dense. Focusing on black and white for the summer season, the designer uses them as colors with pearl bead embroideries creating patterns of cream and ivory on a silken parka.
Overseeing the final details — hand-painting a faux marble wainscoting to match the console — Van Noten described his fashion approach as mixing unlikely elements, as seen in the store.
"I like to surround myself with things that I like — that can teach me something and that I have to learn to understand," the designer said. "I am most fascinated by things that I don't like at first, that you have to learn to appreciate."
In a world of cookie-cutter boutiques, Van Noten, with one store in Antwerp for 20 years and another with Joyce Ma in Hong Kong, is a standard bearer for individuality.
"Honestly, I have a problem with the fashion world — the rhythm, the pre- collection sales early in the season," he said. "I just want to show clothes as nice objects and tell my own story."
From International Herald Tribune online
