Dries Van Noten History Timeline: 1986 to 2026, Year by Year

Posted by

Gemma Deeks

September 21, 2026

On September 21, 2026

Brands we love, Fashion

Dries Van Noten History Timeline: 1986 to 2026, Year by Year

Posted by

Gemma Deeks

September 21, 2026 On September 21, 2026

Show column

Dries Van Noten has one of the cleanest timelines in fashion: one founder, one city, one method, forty years, and a handover in 2024 that the house itself dates to the month. This page sets it out year by year, from the Antwerp Six show in London to Julian Klausner’s Autumn Winter 2026 collection now at Coveti, using the house’s own Biography page and the press record for every date.

Key facts

1958: Dries Van Noten born in Antwerp into a family of tailors and menswear retailers
1981: graduates from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (the house’s own date; other sources say 1980)
1986: first menswear collection, shown in London with the Antwerp Six, stocked by Barneys New York and Whistles
1989: flagship Het Modepaleis opens in Antwerp; 1991: first Paris menswear show; 1993: first Paris womenswear show
2008: CFDA International Designer of the Year; 2014: retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; 2015: Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; 2017: made a Baron
2018: Puig acquires a majority stake; 2020: Los Angeles flagship; 2022: beauty line launches; 2023: Paris Galerie Quai Malaquais, WWD Designer of the Year
2024: retirement announced in March, last show in June; Julian Klausner named creative director in December
2026: Autumn Winter 2026, Klausner’s second autumn collection, arrives at Coveti (311 pieces)

1958 to 1986: Antwerp

Dries Van Noten was born in Antwerp in 1958. His grandfather was a tailor and his father ran a menswear shop, so cloth and the trade were the family business before they were his. He entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts fashion department and graduated in 1981, freelancing for Belgian labels while he built a first collection. In 1986 he and five contemporaries, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee, showed in London together. The British press called them the Antwerp Six, and the first Dries Van Noten menswear collection sold to Barneys New York and Whistles.

1987 to 1993: a house and a Paris calendar

Patrick Vangheluwe joined as partner in 1987. In 1989 the house opened Het Modepaleis, a nineteenth-century former menswear store on Antwerp’s Nationalestraat that is still the flagship. The first Paris menswear show was Spring Summer 1992, held in 1991, and the first Paris womenswear show followed in 1993. From then on, as the house puts it, “Dries stages two womenswear and two menswear shows each year”.

1994 to 2017: the textile decades

The method settled in these years: design from the cloth outwards, print from paintings and archives, weave pattern in as jacquard, treat embroidery as fabric, and refuse to advertise. The recognition followed. The CFDA named him International Designer of the Year in 2008. In 2014 the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris mounted a retrospective. France made him an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015 and the King of Belgium made him a Baron in 2017. The pieces now at Coveti, the Jacquard duffle coat in Sand in Floral Tapestry jacquard and the Embroidered ankle-length wool coat in Black in bullion-embroidered wool, are direct descendants of this period.

2018 to 2023: Puig

In 2018 the Spanish fragrance and fashion group Puig took a majority stake, with Van Noten keeping a minority holding. The house opened a Los Angeles flagship in 2020, launched a beauty line in 2022 with twelve fragrances and thirty refillable lipsticks, and opened the Galerie Quai Malaquais in Paris in 2023, the year WWD named him Designer of the Year for both women’s and men’s collections.

2024 to 2026: the handover

In March 2024 Van Noten announced his retirement after thirty-eight years. His final show was Menswear Spring Summer 2025, in June 2024. In December 2024 the house named Julian Klausner, who had joined the womenswear team in August 2018, creative director. Klausner’s first womenswear show was on 5 March 2025 at the Opéra Garnier. His Autumn Winter 2026 collection is the one now at Coveti: the Silk shirt dress, the Embroidered East-West bag in Sky and the neon Oversized floral coat in Neon Orange among 382 pieces. The Klausner page covers the new chapter in detail.

“Ever since, Dries stages two womenswear and two menswear shows each year,” the house writes on its Biography page of the first Paris womenswear show in 1993.

Frequently asked questions

When was Dries Van Noten founded?

1986, in Antwerp, with a first menswear collection shown in London alongside the Antwerp Six.

When did Dries Van Noten first show in Paris?

Menswear in 1991 (the Spring Summer 1992 collection) and womenswear in 1993. The house has shown two womenswear and two menswear collections a year in Paris since.

When did Puig buy Dries Van Noten?

2018. Puig holds the majority and Dries Van Noten himself keeps a minority stake.

When did Dries Van Noten retire?

He announced it in March 2024 and showed his last collection, Menswear Spring Summer 2025, in June 2024.

Who replaced Dries Van Noten?

Julian Klausner, named creative director in December 2024, first womenswear show 5 March 2025.

Is there a Dries Van Noten book?

The 2014 Paris retrospective was accompanied by a catalogue, and the house has published books through its Projects line; Coveti does not stock them.

More Dries Van Noten guides

Every Dries Van Noten page by Coveti’s fashion editor Gemma Deeks: Who is Dries Van Noten?, How to wear the prints, vs Marni vs Etro, The AW26 edit, Is it a luxury brand?, Brands like Dries Van Noten, Julian Klausner, Price guide, Where to buy, Sale, Review, Real vs fake, Materials and care, Glossary, Who wears it, Size guide, Shoe size guide, New arrivals 2026, Archive and vintage, Coats, Jackets and blazers, Dresses, Skirts, Trousers, Jeans and denim, Shirts and blouses, Knitwear, Embroidered pieces, Black, Shoes, Sneakers, Boots, Loafers, Heels and mules, Bags, Embroidered bags, Jewellery, Earrings, Necklaces and bracelets, Scarves and collars, Belts, Sunglasses.

Sources and method

Checked on 20 September 2026 by Gemma Deeks, fashion editor at Coveti. Product facts, the compositions, lengths, fits, model measurements, heel heights and countries of manufacture, are the brand’s own product-page text; counts, prices and price ranges are Coveti’s live catalogue on that date and move with stock; the house history and the wearers come from the brand’s own pages and the press articles listed below, each read on the date above. Where a claim could not be checked against one of these it was left out, and where the fitting room is giving its own advice the page says so.