Dries van Noten Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Womenswear FW2016

If you’re planning on making autumn 2016 a opulent season, then make Dries van Noten your date. Without going too much into detail (or heaving a seat in the front row) you could immediately feel this collection had a wild and mad sense to it. The reason? Dries his muse this time was Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) the heiress, socialite and countless artist’s muse. A beacon of the belle époque and considered the brightest star in European society as she was well-known for her legendary parties in Venice and Paris. So for this collection to really feel and understand it, every bit of a sense of drama is more than welcome.

The tall and skinny Casati was not considered a beauty, but she was very often the perfect subject for artists as they vainly tried to capture her aristocratic eccentricity. She led a life just as unusual and extraordinary as her outfits. Which resulted in a bold and definite luxurious collection full of leopard prints(it seemed she sometimes was completely naked beneath her furs), rich coloured velvet boots and trousers, decorative pearls not only on gloves but also as an ornate lattice pearl tabard coming from underneath a oversized sweater, sequins, ornate jacquards, flared cream coloured trousers, sporting blazers, heavy mannish overcoats, flowing pyjama’s, silk dresses and feather chokers (it is said that she once wore a freshly-killed chicken as a stole or that her driver had to kill a chicken to pour the blood down her long white arms). Not to mention those black smooched eyes on a pale skin. Like we said: every bit of a sense of drama is more than welcome.