Dries Van Noten and Rabanne

Two labels from the Puig group of fashion houses, Dries Van Noten and Rabanne, staged back-to-back shows: one a cautious step into the post-Dries era, the other a dynamic celebration of contemporary flash fashion.

Dries Van Noten up to

Close, but not quite a success, at Dries Van Noten's first show since the designer's departure in June.
A perfectly adequate collection that felt like Drives Van Noten, but a little more toned down. A spring/summer 2025 collection that had plenty of Van Noten DNA (ethnic prints, scruffy beading, bold colours and a touch of urban chic) ​​but very little of Dries’ magic.

Opening looks ranged from a trench coat and a faux snakeskin sheath dress, the latter with a coral-red neckline, to paisley-print handkerchief skirts paired with tiny bras and baseball jackets, to negligees in creamy brown or turquoise and beautiful seashell-print silk wrap dresses.

While there were some zebra-print spy trench coats and several impeccably cut, masculine tailored coats that Dries' biggest fans will buy, this was a hit-and-miss affair. The prints were too murky, the combinations clashed, the silhouette was too obvious.

And the less said about the makeup and hair, the better. The slicked-back curls looked like they were done by a girl in too much of a hurry to make it to a date, while the red eyeliner made the entire cast look like they had conjunctivitis.

Officially, the collection was created by Dries' former design team, who took a collective bow amid a great deal of applause. By then, however, dozens of buyers and editors had already begun descending the dusty staircase of the building.

In the finale, an Instagram livestream captured Dries and husband Patrick Vangheluwe looking downright bored. All in all, not a bad leadoff hitter for the man who oversees the Dries Van Noten design team these days. In sports parlance, they made it to first base, but they were a long way from a home run.

As we said, close, but not at the same level.

Rabanne: Miss Kittens catwalk

From a dilapidated old building in the 9th arrondissement to the Palais de Tokyo in the 16th, Rabanne's Space Age aesthetic lives on in the historic Parisian house following designer Julien Dossena's metallic fashion collection.

Dossena presented so many metallic designs that at one point the catwalk was covered in gold leaf after a model turned around in the photographers’ pit. With a very distinctive style, Dossena has managed to make Rabanne look much more contemporary, while respecting its futuristic and funky DNA: with mesh cocktail dresses, metallic dresses paired with elegant and resistant parkas.

Her first look said it all: supermodel Gigi Hadid in a stripe-on-stripes combination: shorts, a striped shirt and a parka made from technical menswear shirt material.

He made broad-shouldered jackets but trimmed them with Western-style side studs, and paired that idea with silver centurion skirts and even hoodies. His hipster warrior clubbers showed up in silver-crystalled Art Deco tops paired with chiffon harem pants, and galactic goddesses paraded in pleated turquoise negligees layered with silver.

It's all enhanced by clear plastic booties or soft Flash Gordon boots, like the ones the Asian beauty wears with a mischievous Princess Leia gold mesh dress with cutouts on the sides. Boy, is she an eye-catcher!

With Dries Van Noten gone, Dossena is now the most critically acclaimed designer in the Puig Group, which also controls Jean-Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera and Nina Ricci. Jean-Paul, like Dries, has abandoned the catwalk; Wes Gordon at Herrera creates a classic, respectful modernism, while Harris Reed at Ricci has been such a flop that they no longer stage shows.

So, by default, Dossena is the designer of reference and Puig, the one who adds the most weight to today's show at the Palais de Tokyo. More power to him, who has been a real success.