sleek N°31 XX / X Y
Y men?
by Kris van Assche
Text by Elisa Tudor
The most interesting thing about Kris Van Assche? That nothing he did at the start of his career pointed towards what he is today: a fashion designer who, with his own line and his work for Dior Homme, seems effortlessly to have found a new way of defining manliness in fashion. In the archives of the Antwerp Fashion Museum, where documents from the Royal Academy of the Arts are collecting dust, we find evidence of Van Assche’s early work. The Belgian designer studied at this renowned institution for four years, and documentation of his first shows reveals that he was a surrealist before turning to minimalism. We see rainbow-coloured dresses floating down the runway to the voice of Dolly Parton, we see a glorification of the Eurovision Song Contest, we see Madonna and Margaret Thatcher as style icons and muses. How could all this possibly connect with what Van Assche produces today? Maybe it’s because he wasn’t afraid to visualize his wildest fantasies back then that he seems so sure of his vision today.
Photographer Alessandro Dal Buoni Fashion editor Mauricio Nardi Hair Joseph Pujalte Make up Carole Colombani Models Chris Beek at Success, Victor Nylander at Ford All clothes by KRISVANASSCHE
132
133
sleek N°31 XX / X Y
134
Y men?
135
sleek N°31 XX / X Y
136
Y men?
137
sleek N°31 XX / X Y
138
Y men? Twix
139
sleek N°31 XX / X Y
140
Y men? Twix
141