In an era of luxury fashion where attention spans are short and growth strategies are robust, Dries Van Noten offers a slow and steady approach. Since founding his label in 1986, the designer has taken a thoughtful approach to the trajectory of his business, launching new categories like beauty and fragrance when the time felt right (in 2022) and taking decades to find retail spaces across the globe. His first store was opened in his hometown of Antwerp in 1993. Today, Van Noten has doors in Paris, Los Angeles, and, as of last month, London. Now, after waiting almost 20 years for the right space and moment, the designer has finally opened one of those precious jewel boxes in New York—his very first in the city.
Though he is no longer the Creative Director of his brand (that role belongs to his former number two, Julian Klausner), Van Noten still oversees all of the retail strategy and interior design for the retail spaces. “It always starts with an emotion,” he said. “Of course, we look at artworks, objects, materials—but what matters most is the place. The architecture and the buildings themselves.” For his debut in New York, Van Noten chose a spot on Mercer Street in Soho, on a buzzy block that also houses Alaïa, Marni, and Balenciaga.
The inside of the store features 22-foot-high ceilings and narrow hallways flanked with a mix of artwork that includes a 17th-century portrait of Sir Richard Broke, a 2021 piece by Tracey Emin, and a resin armchair by Gaetano Pesce. The back wall is covered in gold leaf, and much of the contemporary furniture comes from Belgian designer Ben Storms. His work includes a crushed-looking stainless steel room divider and an Italian marble coffee table that looks like a giant floor pillow. The feeling of the shop is meant to evoke New York’s vibrant energy. “London has been treated like an apartment,” Van Noten said. “Then New York is like a sort of artistic space.” Van Noten collected the antiques that punctuate each room, pieces like torchers from the collection of the late Iris Apfel and a metal and wooden Carlo Scarpa bookcase.
There’s a warmth to the space, like everything Van Noten creates, that feels like it’s from another time in fashion and retail, one that prioritized enduring taste and desirability over trend. Van Noten may have stepped away from designing the clothes that anchor his label, but the world of Dries Van Noten is still very much his, shops included. He’s never wanted to be a behemoth brand, but he’s always known how to build his own world and live comfortably—and beautifully—in it.
Below, take a look inside Dries Van Noten’s New York store.
