Dries Van Noten
After years of loose, slouchy and layered, Dries Van Noten zeroed in on the feminine hourglass for fall, with 60s cocktail dresses in duchesse satin and cinched trench coats in olive-drab canvas. The pairing of shimmery gold and/or sequined fabrics (which looked as though they had been grabbed from a toreador’s traje de luz) with a Moroccan djellaba in camel’s hair or satin could have been two or three pieces morphed into one. Recalling the movie Private Benjamin, that olive fabric—which Van Noten also used in pants and even pouf skirts—gave a bugle-like wake-up call to an otherwise over-the-top collection of leopard spots, croc accessories and silver-screen luxe. Or was it Audrey Hepburn we were watching? A pouf-skirted cocktail dress worn with above-the-elbow gloves was pure Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but when it’s topped with a slouchy black sweatshirt, Audrey turns into a thoroughly modern girl.