Dries Van Noten’s Spring 2017 Show Melts Away — Quite Literally

Contemporary Belgian master Dries Van Noten‘s Spring 2017 was replete with details pulled from the work of visual artists: Flowers frozen in columns of ice, sculptures by Azuma Makoto, flanked the runway, quietly dripping as they melted in real time. The bright bouquets sealed inside these ice blocks picked up on the painterly swaths of impressionistic flower arrangements splattered across many of Van Noten’s silk dresses. It’s a cold, frozen spring for Van Noten, but one that promises to melt away. And amid the pops of color on dresses, bombers, skirts, shorts, and overcoats, there was a darker streak: dour painter’s smocks in solid black and courtly, embellished tops, gowns, and jackets. Photographer Ambra Vernuccio went backstage to capture every angle of the Belgian designer’s most recent fashion show-slash-art piece; see Dries Van Noten Spring 2017 from every angle, here.