Hot Take: Julian Klausner’s Dries Van Noten Is Even Better Than Dries’s Dries Van Noten

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I know it verges on the sacrilegious to say this, but I have to speak my truth: I think that Dries Van Noten under the leadership of Julian Klausner is more beautiful, more exciting, and — I’m just going to say it — better than when Van Noten himself was at the helm of the brand.

Don’t get me wrong. I love old Dries. LOVE! It was one of the first designer brands I bought when I started working in fashion and could finally afford to do so. And every season for years I would pour over what Van Noten was doing, wishing I was rich enough to swath myself in his designs and his designs alone. All I wanted was to be a Dries boy. And to this day, when I see old Dries out in the wild, I still swoon.

It’s amazing how often you can tell when someone is wearing Dries. Even if it’s 20 years old. Not because this or that season was so distinct that the person looks like they just stepped out of a time machine, but because the proportions, the patterns, and the color play are so immaculate, so precise, and yet so seemingly easy, so unbothered, that it’s as if whatever it is couldn’t possibly have been designed by anyone else.

That said, in the years leading up to Van Noten’s retirement, I did find myself less interested in his offerings than I had been. Maybe it’s just me — and I feel a little crazy writing this — but the collections, especially for men, started to feel a little conservative. A little stayed. Still lovely. Still full of pieces I would feel fortunate to live my life in, but more and more, it struck me that the wow, the fun, the insouciance was draining out of the collections as a whole. Though there were still plenty of moments of magic even then. I don’t think Van Noten could have done it any other way.

The irony, of course, is that those collections, in a way, were actually more wearable for me — I’m not the most adventurous dresser by a long shot — than what Klausner is doing now. And yet, Klausner’s Dries makes my heart flutter. I just love it. It’s so alive. So incredibly beautiful. Not just attractive or flattering but really and truly beautiful. It maintains that incredible balance of refinement and ease that makes Dries Dries — real, wearable, special, but still livable, clothes that are meant to be worn, not just looked at and photographed.

But Klausner isn’t afraid to turn up the volume. To go bigger, bolder, more. Not to imply that Van Noten was “afraid” himself. But his version of the brand he built with such care felt quieter than what Klausner is doing now. And for me, at this moment, I’m really drawn to the bolder, more expressive version of Dries that I see in Klausner’s work.

I’m just so enchanted by the colors and patterns and the way he combines them all. Each look is so full, the pieces so distinctive, yet they go together so well that it’s almost hard to believe they were not designed with this one explicit outfit in mind.

The combined effect is so powerful that Klausner actually makes me believe in the wearability and grace of eccentric fashion novelties like giant knit dickies and pattern-clashing paper bag waist pants.

And shiny fabrics! He really makes me believe that I can wear satins, silks, and brocades, which, in the hands of other designers so often feel fussy and excessively fay to me.

Of course, me being me, I wouldn’t likely pile the pieces on like Klausner does in his shows, but that’s okay. And it’s actually that piling on that I think, counterintuitively, makes the pieces feel less precious. More wearable. Even as I imagine the various elements of any given outfit were designed to go together, I can also easily imagine each of those outfits coming apart and being combined with simpler, more classic menswear pieces like a clean white shirt or the  perfect pair of jeans. And I don’t need Klausner to take the time to show me that. It is preciseley because these pieces work so well all piled together that I know they will also look good apart.

And look, I’m not some sort of zealot. Not every exit in Klausner’s Fall 2026 menswear show worked for me. Those tops with the round capelet things were definitely less successful in my eyes. Capes, in general, are a sartorial flourish I cannot picture succeeding anywhere besides a comic convention or a Renaissance fair. But even so, I was personally more interested, more intrigued by the possibilities of some of Klausner’s capes than, say, what Jonathan Anderson has been proposing at Dior the last couple of seasons. Not that these two designers — both powerful creative forces in their own ways — are somehow in competition with or in opposition to one another. I just notice that the overall effect of Klausner’s Dries is that it makes me believe in the possibility — the wearability — of pieces and combinations I didn’t believe in before. Not for myself.

I may never be a real Dries boy. But Julian Klausner’s Dries thrills me the way old Dries did when it was new. And when I was new. New to New York. New to fashion. Dries was a dream then. And when I look at Klausner’s Dries, I find myself feeling dreamy once again.