Dries Van Noten is leaving his position at Dries Van Noten

The news shocked the fashion world on Tuesday afternoon. Dries Van Noten leaves Dries Van Noten. The brand’s eponymous designer will step down as creative director after the men’s spring-summer 2025 show, which he will present in June in Paris. In a press release posted on Instagram and shared everywhere, Dries Van Noten explains: “In the early 1980s, when I was young from Antwerp, my dream was to have a voice in the world of fashion. On a journey that took me to London, Paris and elsewhere, and with the support of countless people, this dream became a reality. Now I want to focus on all the things I never had time for.” The designer then admits that he has been preparing for this departure for some time, wanting to make way for a new generation that will in turn bring his vision to the brand.

Dries Van Noten elaborates that the spring-summer 2025 women’s collection, which will be presented in September, will be produced by the workshops with which he has worked closely for years, giving them his full confidence. We have to wait for the rest. “In time we will announce the name of the creator who will continue the DVN story.” It’s barely been a day since the announcement and certain names are already popping up on the keyboards of stressed out internet users. Among them are favorites like Haider Ackermann, Sarah Burton and Heaven Tanudireja, who already works alongside Dries Van Noten.

38 year career

Before thanking his colleagues, including the Puig group, the designer calms down. So it’s a bow, but not a goodbye, for the 65-year-old Antwerp native who left his mark on fashion during his thirty-eight-year career. The grandson of a tailor, Dries Van Noten studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and was part of the Antwerp Six along with Anne Demeulemeester. A collective that inspired a whole generation of creatives who studied at the same institution as Martin Margiela or Raf Simons, from the same generation as Dries Van Noten. Those who have never given in to the signals of advertising and celebrities will thus leave the fashion intact, clear memory, made with varied effects of colors, patterns, original textures and fine embroidery.