I’m a very big fan of winter-flowering shrubs and bulbs. You have the smell, you have the color – it’s really like a present from God when something like that is in flower in the middle of the snow. – Dries van Noten
I have a responsibility to the people who work for me, the manufacturers I work with. There is no point to clothes that don’t sell. – Dries van Noten
I have my own office, and I’m there during the evenings and weekends. But during the week, I’m sitting in the middle of my studio, talking with everybody, deciding together every detail, every pallette, every yarn, every colour. – Dries van Noten
I like it when you have something happening by coincidence. Just something in a book is enough. But I prefer a fragment of an image so you are far more free to bring in elements of your own. – Dries van Noten
All my collections are very personal. It’s also because I’m so involved in making the collections. – Dries van Noten
I’m really hands-on. My team brings in elements, but, every season, it’s kind of a personal struggle to find the balance and to see how far I want to push the elements. – Dries van Noten
I was a kid at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s, so a lot of things changed. You had pop music coming up, with David Bowie, you had new television programmes and all these things. I was fascinated. – Dries van Noten
I prefer to see a good exhibit sponsored by a brand than a bad exhibit due to lack of funds. – Dries van Noten
I’m part of the fashion system, but I don’t want to follow all the rules. I don’t want to be contrarian – I just want to do my own things, which are most honest and correct to do. – Dries van Noten
When we were studying at the Royal Antwerp Academy, we were taught to seek inspiration from everyone, everything and everywhere. My parents and grandparents were also a great inspiration for me a very young age. – Dries van Noten
For me, restrictions are not always negative. Restrictions can push creativity. I like restrictions. – Dries van Noten
I think by my father owning a store, I was definitely aware of the commercial aspect of selling clothes. His shop was a place I enjoyed spending time in as a boy, so I learned things almost by osmosis at times, by literally just being around all the action and not really despite myself. – Dries van Noten
One of the big luxuries of being in Antwerp is that I can easily walk in the city. In Paris and New York, I am more recognized. – Dries van Noten
I love the journeys of research and discovery their development takes me on. I see prints as less ‘decorative’ than many might, and more fundamental to a garment’s core. – Dries van Noten
Various different people have inspired me throughout my career. From Francis Bacon to Vassareli, Coco Chanel to Christian Dior, Cecil Beaton, musicians, architects… the list is endless. – Dries van Noten
People get this very romantic vision of a fashion designer who in one night makes 25 sketches and in the morning throws them on the table and there are a lot of women in white aprons with the pins on the lapel and they start to grab the sketches and… It’s not like that. – Dries van Noten
When I get very stressed, I make jam. I like things that produce a quick result, because fashion has such a long lead time. With jam, you start, and two-three hours later, you have 36 little pots, all full. – Dries van Noten
I don’t design for myself. I design something keeping in mind that it has to please a lot of women. – Dries van Noten
Clothes is just something you put on to cover yourself… fashion is a way to communicate. – Dries van Noten
Sometimes, to stimulate your imagination you have to be careful you don’t have too much information. You can Google something, and it’s in your face, pow! You don’t have time to dream any more about it. – Dries van Noten
