Post by Matthew Bromley

Dries Van Noten Men’s Spring 2027 by Julian Klausner The colors are light and the graphics or patterns accentuate the airy feeling this collection brings. A challenge with lightness, to me, is always how do you accessorize that without a disproportion in weight. Well with many of these looks the accessories are those graphics, as well as bags or necklaces which fall in a delicate way. The glasses are round with colors that enhance a laid back outfit. When the patterns come to life and take center stage, you can find the deep reds or rich blues accentuated within the lining, or gradient wash to meet the hem with the shoe. “Klausner’s solution was imagined from his reading of Stéphane Mallarmé’s “L’Apres Midi d’Une Faune,” a poe, he said was lying around Van Noten’s studio in Antwerp. Very quickly he and his team were thinking about the tale of a half-human, half-animal waking from a dream in a forest; and Debussy’s music inspired by it, and Nijinsky’s choreography of it for the Ballets Russes. “We started the season with the desire, the wish to do something that feels light, that feels delicate.” At a moment when many menswear designers have been talking about softening things up and making things with a more gentle attitude, Klausner has an advantage: he comes from the womenswear side of Van Noten. At first, his lack of experience in menswear intimidated him a bit. “I approached it kind of on tip-toes, not knowing exactly what I was able to do, or how it would feel in the first season,” he remembered. “But In a way, I benefited from a sort of freedom. I had nothing to lose, I just thought, try it out. I worked with the men's team, who had been my colleagues, but I had never really worked with them. It’s new, it’s kind of the same game, with slightly different rules, different toys. We had fun with it.”’ - Sarah Mower