Etienne Russo has produced so many fashion shows that he has no idea exactly what number.
He says: It must be maybe 1,200 or 1,300.
I used to count them, but then it became too many to count.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2000 menswear
One number he does know for certain is how many collections hes produced for Dries Van Noten:129.
His famous garden is beckoning.
Russo first met Van Noten back in the 1980s when hisfellow Belgianwas emerging as part of the Antwerp Six.
Dries Van Noten, spring 1992 menswear
Back then, for that first show, Russo was effectively a one man band.
Key clients (Noten apart), include Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Dior.
Dries Van Noten, spring 1992 menswear
Spring 1992 Menswear
I mean this was a lot.
Dries Van Noten spring 1994 menswear
This was my first show in Paris, and my first show producing for Dries Van Noten.
The theme was Fear and Fortune.
It was the fifth of July 1991, at 7 pm.
Dries Van Noten spring 1994 menswear
And it was in the Hotel Saint-James & Albany, in the basement.
The music I remember was Dean Martin: Thats Amore.
It was meant to be a village, very naive.
Dries Van Noten spring 1996 menswear
We had laid down grass as the set.
We had to airbrush itspray paint through a compressor…
So I got very nervous.
Dries Van Noten spring 1996 menswear
Before the show Dries was looking for me everywhere.
But I had locked myself in the toilet.
I had got so stressed, I kind of froze.
Dries Van Noten fall 1996 ready-to-wear
But eventually I came out.
The show had to start.
And we did it, that was the beginning of the story.
Dries Van Noten spring 1997 menswear
The music was Bollywood soundtracks.
Nowadays if you have two venues to present its amazing.
And at the end of the show we paid the businesses for the money they had taken.
Dries Van Noten spring 2000 menswear
They were dancing and getting involved.
It was a lot of fun.
This was also the time where the models could be a lot more lively.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2005 ready-to-wear
They were interacting with the guests and the audience and there was joy.
A certain joie de vivre that was also in the collection.
The main show of the week.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2005 ready-to-wear
They started showing us the venues that they proposed and we said no to everything.
Because we loved Piazzale Michelangelo.
But we said well its either there or we cannot do the show!
Dries Van Noten, spring 2005 ready-to-wear
We wouldnt act this way normally, but there are moments when you have to.
In the run-up we went to the Piazzale in the morning, during the day, and at night.
And then at night young guys would come as a group.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2005 menswear
They would park their cars and have a drink and turn on the music.
So we wanted to recreate this in a show.
We really wanted it to look like a movie, which meant the lighting was extremely important.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2009 ready-to-wear
He came from Rome.
It was amazing to work with people like this.
Afterwards actually he asked me to work with him but because I was working with Dries I said no.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2009 ready-to-wear
I regret this sometimes.
But that night was incredible.
There was this disco ball that threw lights everywhere and afterwards we had fireworks.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2009 ready-to-wear
I would like to think we were amongst the first ones to bring out fashion show.
So we thought out of the box and off the beaten track.
With Dries he knew beforehand where he was going with his theme.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2009 menswear
This time it was Indian wtreetwear.
We showed in the market at Barbes-Rochechouart.
We gave people gluhwein and roasted chestnuts.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2015 ready-to-wear
And during the show it started snowing.
Dries Van Noten spring 1997 menswear
Spring 1997 Menswear
This is one year after Florence.
And there was this idea to make a Moroccan village of typical Caidal tents.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2016 menswear
We were very happy with how it looked.
At 4:30 am I got a call from security on the site.
The water started to rise from the ground because there was so much rain and it filled the tents.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2016 menswear
So maybe at around 7:30 am I realized it was never going to work.
The show was at 4:30.
Across the road then was this exhibition space, Espace Eiffel-Branly.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2016 menswear
I ran across the road and asked to see the director.
I remember saying: It is a matter of life or death.
They called her and she said she would come in 45 minutes.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2017 ready-to-wear
I told her what we were facing.
I said I need your help.
hey, I need you to lend me the space.
And she said yes!
When Dries is nervous he does not look nervous at all.
He looks extremely calm.
He went to enter the venue and I said no, you do not want to see this.
And I took him over the road.
We had spent three days preparing the space and we had three hours to make the new space.
We were like ants, working together.
When the photographers arrived they helped to build their pit.
And when the guests arrived we sent them across the street and we managed to do it.
It was so intense.
This was the closest to the cliffs edge.
If the director had said no, there would have been no show.
People understood, and we had a standing ovation: and it was because everyone worked together.
Dries Van Noten spring 2000 menswear
Spring 2000 Menswear
This was theClockwork Orangetheme collection.
It was one of my favorites.
I think this was when Dries started to introduce skirts over jeans or pants.
The looks here were quite something, with the baseball bats and the darkened eyesit was aggressive.
But because of the rain we had to move inside into the basement.
And sometimes weird things happen.
It was very powerful.
Dries Van Noten, spring 2005 ready-to-wear
Spring 2005 Ready-to-Wear
Now we jump to the 50th show.
It was on October 6, 2004, so basically its nearly 20 years ago.
It was out in La Courneuve at the Babcock & Wilcox factory.
And actually that is where we will be doing the last-ever show this Saturday.
And the dinner was under 150 chandeliers hung low over the table to create this super low light.
So the people had dinner, not expecting for a second what was to happen.
Actually another challenge was how do we serve 500 people at the same time?
I wanted 500 waiters but it was too expensive so we had 250.
The guests applauded that!
Then the chandeliers were raised and the show startedthe models came out on the table.
And we did it.
It was about timing.
I think we were blessed by luck that day.
Even if it doesnt exist, we always aim for perfection, for everyone we work with.
This was the closest we ever came to touching it, even if just for a microsecond.
It was a magical moment.
But the question it left us with was, whats next?
It was about cleaning the palate.
We held it at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
It was the first page of a new book.
The models smoked so the smoke would billow around them.
We put two voice artists in a studio and recorded it.
And we played the sound super low and put the speakers right next to the guests.
It was very intimate and close.
I have super good memories of this show because of the balance against what came before it.
It was so simple it hurt.
Dries Van Noten, fall 2009 ready-to-wear
Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear
This one was in Lycee Carnot.
Dries for this collection moved from prints to colorblock.
He felt like he wanted to give himself a break.
But I want to talk about the set.
The Lycee Carnot is a very long space, but we wanted to make it longer.
So we put in a mirror.
But then the night before when we looked at it, it was very bad.
So we said we have to remove everything.
And as they removed the last one, they were inclining it.
Because they were eight meters high and they had to be carried out.
And thats when we saw the beautiful thing.
Basically it was a kind of an optical illusion.
When the girl was walking towards her reflection they would look as if they were separating.
And I’m including this show to help you understand that it cannot always be preplanned.
It was only because we were there at the right moment, looking, that it worked.
It was an old horse market transformed into a carpark.
The music was Gary Newmans Cars.
And the decor was 200 white cars that we found in and around Paris.
It could have been a real carpark, just full of white cars.
The whole show started all white.
And the whole runway was defined by the way the cars were parked.
And we used the trunks of the cars full of ice-boxes to serve drinks and snacks.
It brought a beautiful atmosphere.
We wanted real moss, but it did not really work.
So, how to get around that?
She only had three weeks to make it.
It was so beautiful.
The scenography was beautiful.
When we saw the carpet we realized we had to do something special.
So at the end the models came in and staged a sit-in instead of walking.
They came in and took their place, they fell to their slumber.
Every season for 17 years, wed been asking.
It was always: no.
We have a rehearsal.
We have a show.
We called every season, menswear and womenswear.
Until finally they said we had 24 hours to come in, come out, and do the show.
And the models came out from la cage de scene, which was this amazing 18-meter-high space.
The grandiosity of that stage, and the technicity of the space.
It was extremely special.
Where theres a will, theres a way.
And who knew that you could freeze flowers without burning their petals?
Azuma came to Belgium and made the bouquets but we had the responsibility of freezing them.
We discovered that you might only freeze them without damage if you do it extremely slowly.
If I remember correctly it took 22 days.
And to have very clear ice is also the challenge.
But the show was during one of those very hot Septembers.
And when the blocks arrived the night before they were already starting to drip.
It was another special show.
