A New Scents Of Discretion: Dries Van Noten On Turning His Eye To Beauty

Dries Van Noten / Image: supplied by MECCA

In March 2024, Dries Van Noten announced that he would be stepping down from the helm of his namesake label. Being just 65 years old at the time—springtime, compared to some of his contemporaries—the news confounded fans and the industry as a whole, who have come to rely on the Belgian designer as a consistent breath of fresh air. But despite an emotional farewell, this moment is rife with possibility as he now turns his meticulous eye to the world of beauty. 

As the son of a menswear shop owner and the grandson of a tailor, Van Noten may have been born into the business of fashion, but it was his own flair for texture and colour that pushed him to establish his eponymous label in 1986. When he and five other Belgian designers travelled to Paris to showcase their creations, they quickly gained the moniker ‘The Antwerp Six’—an association none of the designers has been able to quite shake, for better or worse. With orders immediately spilling in from major international retailers like Barneys and Whistles, he quickly became a household name, and the brand eventually found a home on the Paris Fashion Week schedule, where it remains today. But while his success and popularity have been unwavering, the reticent figurehead has evaded fashion’s limelight. 

Known as a ‘designer’s designer’ with an unorthodox aversion to the industry’s buzz, Van Noten is somewhat of a purist of the modern age, never buying into clever marketing schemes or tapping lucrative faces to drive sales. 

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“I have always worked organically, driven by a commitment to authenticity,” he tells GRAZIA, touching on his outré for the fleeting trends and plays at virality that can dominate the industry. “I believe in letting the quality and craftsmanship of my products speak for themselves rather than relying on temporary things and celebrity endorsements.”

Even as fashion has fallen in and out of love with wearability and colour—two pillars of his brand—over the decades, Van Noten has never quite cared to do things any other way. Instead, his approach has always been methodical, rooted in a deep respect for the creation process, and prioritising substance over spectacle. Whether it’s reimagining women’s suiting or blending an unexpected scent combination, his work is defined by a thoughtful consideration of how things will resonate with the world his customers inhabit.

“I always look ahead,” he emphasises. “Creating is about leaving something that lives on. My sense of this moment is how it is not only mine, but ours, always.”

It may seem antithetical to the fast-paced nature of the industry, but this commitment to meaningful innovation is exactly what makes the brand so unique in its success and quiet, albeit enduring, relevancy. Take his last-ever runway collection: instead of a swan song rerunning his greatest hits, the designer employed a Japanese printmaking technique he had never used before. And as he got to working on concocting the recently launched beauty line, he extended this same fusion of bold creativity and meaningful refinement to a collection of 10 distinctive scents. To create these blends, though, Van Noten required a blank canvas. 

“When I met the noses, I asked them to forget everything they knew about perfumery,” he recalls. “To create a perfume, you sometimes need to create distance. It was crucial that they dared to blend ingredients in unexpected combinations, much like how I combine colours, prints, or atmospheres that seemingly clash, such as sportswear and couture, or a clash of colours… I approached perfume creation similarly to my approach to fashion collections.”

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Created in collaboration with the Spanish luxury group Puig, which has held a majority stake in the DVN business since 2018, the set offers a curation of distinct olfactory blends that are as complex as the wearers.

“Just as I design clothes for diverse types of people— different ages and personalities—I approach perfumery in a similar manner,” explains Van Noten. “That’s why I developed a range of 10 perfumes, each tailored to match various personalities and capture specific moments and feelings.”

“Perfume is deeply personal, and its beauty lies in its ability to evoke memories and emotions,” he continues. “A scent should transport you to a specific moment or emotion, allowing you to express yourself uniquely. It allows you to enrich your personality by expressing a facet of what you feel at a specific moment.”

Of course, this isn’t his first foray into fragrance. In 2013, renowned perfumier Frédéric Malle created a scent portrait of the designer, with notes inspired by his life and influences. But with this collection, Van Noten forges something distinctly his own, reflecting his belief that fashion and beauty are intrinsically linked. 

“Fashion and beauty complement each other seamlessly,” he says. “It is part of the way I express myself.” 

Finding harmony in juxtaposition has always been Van Noten’s signature ploy, and his knack for pairing unexpectedly satisfying combinations comes through in the perfumes’ packaging—recycled and refillable—which visually reflects the duality of the scents through a mix of materials, patterns, and textures. Think earthy tortoiseshell with regal purple or porcelain handpainted with blue oxide and contrasted with a translucent deep berry.

The balancing of seemingly disparate elements is an essential part of Van Noten’s life. The designer still resides in his homeland of Belgium in an expansive property named Ringenhof, on the outskirts of Lier. Alongside his partner and creative director, Patrick Vangheluwe, and their Airedale Terrier, Harry, he takes comfort in its quiet. 

“I always recognise the contrast between gardening and my work as a designer,” he says. “Nature requires patience, whereas fashion moves forward rapidly. In fashion, control is essential, while nature constantly surprises… Living in Belgium gives me a wholly different point of view on a lot of things. Once I have finished with a collection, I can go back to Antwerp and see the whole fashion scene from a healthy distance.”

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Like many creatives before him, though, ‘retirement’ doesn’t quite meet a conventional undertaking. Sure, there was a final show, but Van Noten will not be far from this world he has so methodically built. With prolific shifts in leadership taking place across major fashion houses and beauty brands as companies dial up the pressure for rapid commercial growth and exposure, Van Noten has expressed some hesitation about walking away entirely. He has no say in who will take on his namesake, but the founder is naturally eager to see what is in store.

“The whole thing now of designers changing and changing and changing again worries me a lot,” he said in a recent interview. “The last thing I want is for my name to become just a name that is put on different collections. And that happens so much.”

It’s true that the turnover of late is a symptom of general instability in the industry, but between a growing cost-of-living crisis and the news cycle reading like a dystopian horror film, fashion holds weight. Van Noten knows this; however, his ability to balance the artistry of the avant-garde with the levity of ready-to-wear has imbued his designs with a discerning expressiveness that is exceptionally rare.

“I used to think my work should reflect what’s going on in the world. But four years ago, I realised the world was getting more chaotic,” he concedes. “Maybe fashion should offer an escape, but you can’t ignore the world’s problems. Is it silly to celebrate bright colours and summer when there’s war nearby? Still, escapism matters. It’s not better to hide at home wearing only black because the world isn’t perfect.”

In impossible conditions and an ever-turbulent fashion landscape, the designer has managed to create in ways that enable his customers to see themselves in their best form, and now he brings this talent to fragrance. 

“Like fashion, I aim to create fragrances that resonate on a soulful level,” he says, utilising his taste for the unexpected to carry on his legacy through new and exciting mediums. The result is beauty products that are at once quintessential and entirely new. 

Luckily for the world, it seems the modern magic of Van Noten is far from desertion, with more to come in the beauty space and a quiet advisory role in fashion. 

“I’m not completely closing the door,” he assures. 

And in this space, the fresh air continues to flow in. 

Dries Van Noten Beauty is available exclusively at MECCA.