My girlfriend is in fashion and wanted to see the Dries van Noten exhibition in Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, so we took the train from Amsterdam to get there, which felt like a very cosmopolitan thing to do.
Belgian fashion designer Van Noten (1958), who still owns 100 percent of his company’s shares, shows his inspirations, grouped in loose themes like ‘Graphic’, ‘Uniforms’ and ‘Foppish’. Per theme, you’ll see a vitrine with Van Notens designs, accompanied by pieces he found in the museum archive and his personal inspirations, like extracts from his favorite movies.
I especially liked the part where Van Noten combined Jean Cocteau’s sword with a portrait of David Bowie and his own impressive men coats.
The whole show felt like an enormous and sophisticated mood board and reminded me of the book by American author Austin Kleon, who encourages artists to share their inspirations publicly: Steal Like an Artist (2012).