Dries van Noten

Dries Van Noten is a Belgian fashion designer and an eponymous fashion brand. In 2005, the New York Times described him as "one of fashion's most cerebral designers". His style is said to be "eccentric", and fell out of favor during the long period of minimalistic fashion in the early 1990s, only to make a come back towards the mid-2000s, culminating with Van Noten's winning of the International Award of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2008. That same year, he dressed actress Cate Blanchett for the Academy Awards, and has continued to dress her for other red carpet events since then. Other notable customers include Princess Mathilde of Belgium, and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Van Noten was born into a family of garment makers and traders: his father owned a menswear shop and his grandfather was a tailor. He graduated from the Antwerp Academy in 1980, and began his career in 1986, when he presented his first menswear collection in London as part of the The Antwerp Six collective. That led to a small order from Barneys New York, a store that still stocks his merchandise regularly.