At Dries Van Noten, Julian Klausner tapped surf culture to provide a fresh, salty blast of inspiration. But, you may not have guessed it from the looks alone

Dries Van Noten has shown that a new creative director need not require controversy, brand remaking, or provocative designs to reignite the label’s sizzle factor. Or, as is the case with luxury fashion these days, augment its cultural capital. Julian Klausner, only in his second season, continued to reinforce the narrative of continuity, without disruptive—and confounding—renewal. As with his debut early this year, he brought fresh energy and a sense of purpose to the house without needing to tear down the very identity that makes Dries Van Noten so palatable: intricate prints, rich textures, and exuberant, often clashing color palettes, all within sensuous shapes that possess sartorial clarity—they are unambiguously clothes.

In his first season, Mr Klausner proposed a subtle, yet stirring shift, playing with the tension between casual and dressy, draped and structured, and patterns and ornaments (fringes and tassles!). This collection, while less reliant on surface treatments, continues the strategic theatrical shift we have admired, rather than the aesthetic overhauls that are preferred at other houses. Every moment was savoured with considerable exhilaration, especially the colour story, which went from neutrals to acids to brights. Mr Klausner, like the founder of the brand he now helms, deftly moved between colour groups with the ease and confidence of light shifting through a crystalline prism.

What truly defied our expectation was how the source of inspiration was not immediately decipherable. After the show, Mr Klausner told the media backstage that he was inspired by surfing and sunset. With his sensory richness of colour and the commanding mix of print and patterns, he certainly was not evoking Bali’s Uluwatu or, worse, Phuket’s Kata Beach. For him, none of such attractions’ over-louche attitude to dress (or lack of clothing). Sure, there were tops and shorts that could have hinted at wetsuits, but for the most part, the collection kept to the house’s sense of vibrancy, but with Mr Klausner’s flair for lightness. Women who wear the pieces and float down to the beachside restaurant in the resort their staying in won’t feel they are on the set of The White Lotus.

What makes Julian Klausner’s approach so compelling is his very refusal to design literally. The “wave” was not a motif to be plastered onto a sheer skirt; it was a metaphor for the kinetic energy of the seas and the refracting of natural light—specifically sunlight. The floaty skirts, the column dresses, and the roomy jackets benefitted from daylight that simply grants a more exuberant palette. And where the sun hits, flowers bloom, casting their vibrant hues—so brilliantly distilled in the collection’s crescendo, the geometric prints: oversized dots that could have been shadows cast by beach umbrellas or the curly shapes that could have been the calming waves. The ocean’s edge will no doubt meet the city’s concrete. It was not hard to see that the collection will not only captivate in the stores, it will command the Dries Van Noten’s many customers’ deep engagement and pockets.

Photos: Dries Van Noten