Acclaimed Belgian fashion designer Dries van Noten has announced he is leaving his role as creative director for his eponymous fashion label.
The 65-year-old designer will end a four-decade career in the fashion industry after the brand runs its men’s show for the spring-summer 2025 season at the Paris Fashion Week in June. Van Noten’s studio team will take over for the Women’s spring-summer collection.
“In due time, we will announce the designer who will continue the story,” van Noten told Women’s Wear Daily. “I have been preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram.
Van Noten first launched a menswear line in 1986, having graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He soon joined the Antwerp Six collective, a group of fashion designers from the academy led by Linda Loppa, which led to van Noten’s first major orders.
His brand has grown to become a well respected cornerstone of the industry, representing a unique approach to bold colours and patterns in the luxury fashion market. In 2004, van Noten held his 50th fashion show, with his 100th coming just over a decade later in 2017.
Van Noten won the International Designer of the Year Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2008.
He sold a majority stake of his brand to Spanish fashion company Puig in 2018, setting up the first inklings of an eventual succession.
“In the early ‘80s, as a young guy from Antwerp, my dream was to have a voice in fashion. Through a journey that brought me to London, Paris and beyond, and with the help of countless supportive people, that dream came true,” van Noten said in a statement.
“Now, I want to shift my focus to all the things I never had the time for. I’m sad, but at the same time happy, to let you know that I will step down at the end of June. I have been preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand.”
