Julian Klausner, a womenswear designer at the Antwerp-based house since 2018, is seen as a top contender to step up, according to market sources.
By Miles Socha
November 26, 2024, 1:00am
The Dries Van Noten fashion house seems poised to promote an inside talent in the wake of the founder’s retirement from the runway earlier this year, WWD has learned.
According to market sources, the Puig-owned company recently halted a monthslong search process that had it interviewing a wide range of number-two talents at various fashion houses across Europe.
Julian Klausner, a womenswear designer at Antwerp-based Dries Van Noten since 2018, is now seen as a top contender to step up, the same sources said.
The timing of any promotion, and the precise title and scope, could not immediately be learned.
Contacted on Monday, a spokeswoman for Dries Van Noten declined all comment.
WWD broke the news last March that Van Noten, a beloved and singular designer, would be stepping down after nearly four decades in fashion — and a glorious, slow-building fashion career.
“In due time, we will announce the designer who will continue the story,” Van Noten told WWD at the time.
His swan-song show was staged last June during men’s fashion week in Paris, and the Belgian designer sat front row at the spring 2025 Dries Van Noten womenswear show in Paris last September, which was executed by the studio team and received largely positive feedback from press and buyers.
Van Noten continues to play an advisory role at the house he sold to Puig in 2018, mostly on the beauty side. Last August he unveiled four new Dries Van Noten fragrances, dressing the bottles in unique colors and prints, his chief calling cards.
It is understood the men’s fall 2025 collection, next up for the brand, is being handled by the studio team.
A graduate of the renowned Brussels visual arts and fashion school La Cambre, Krausner interned at Thom Browne, Kenzo and Maison Margiela before being hired in 2016 as a junior designer at the latter house, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Among La Cambre’s famous fashion graduates are Anthony Vaccarello, Matthieu Blazy, Olivier Theyskens, Marine Serre and Julien Dossena.
Synonymous with ravishing colors, striking prints and dignified dressing tinged with exotic details, Van Noten is one of the original Antwerp Six that put the Belgian city on the international fashion map in the ‘80s — and he is arguably the one who has had the most enduring impact on womenswear and menswear.
Born into a family of tailors and a graduate of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Van Noten launched his label with menswear in 1986 and established his flagship in his hometown in 1989.
