Dries Van Noten Men’s Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection at Paris Men’s Fashion Week

Dries Van Noten Men’s Spring 2027, designed by creative director Julian Klausner, was shown at the Tennis Club of Paris during 100-degree heat and is built on acetates, viscose, washed silks, chiffon, watery nylons, and stocking-weight knits. Inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1867 poem “Afternoon of a Faun,” the collection opens in peachy neutrals and moves through powdery hues rendered in solid, gradient, and smudged botanical prints across cargo pants, parkas, unlined duster coats, and silky short shorts. This is Klausner’s third men’s show since taking over as creative director of the Antwerp-based house.

Dries Van Noten Men’s Spring 2027, designed by creative director Julian Klausner and shown at the Tennis Club of Paris during 100-degree heat, is constructed from acetates, viscose, washed silks, chiffon, watery nylons, and nearly sheer stocking-weight knits, producing what WWD calls “one of the lightest and most unapologetically feminine collections so far this Paris season.”
The collection is inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1867 poem “Afternoon of a Faun,” which Klausner describes as the story of “a faun, half-man, half-animal, a kind of dream-like creature who wakes up after a nap in a forest, and he is in a haze.”
Key pieces include silk cargo pants, unlined duster coats over wrinkled crepe semi-sheer shirts, silky short shorts, lightweight parkas with sky prints, and a butter-soft caramel leather piece with a matching clutch bag, all in a palette that opens with peachy neutrals and moves through powdery hues in solid, gradient, and smudged botanical prints.
This is Klausner’s third men’s show since stepping up as creative director of the Antwerp-based house, and he comes from the womenswear side of Van Noten, a background that Vogue identifies as an advantage at a moment when feminized, expressive fashion is filtering into menswear.
Forest prints and jacquard patterns appear on coats, leopard-spotted accessories and pink ballet shoes complete several looks, and wisps of feather in the models’ hair reinforce the collection’s stated erotic and queer romanticism.

Paris hit 100 degrees the day Julian Klausner showed Dries Van Noten Men’s Spring 2027 at the Tennis Club of Paris. The venue was airless. The chipboard المدرج was vast. And the collection that walked it was, by a considerable margin, the lightest and most deliberately weightless thing shown in the city that week. Klausner had cited a wish “for something light, something delicate” during the preview, and the conditions made that wish feel less like a design brief and more like a survival strategy.

Dries Van Noten Men's Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection at Paris Men's Fashion Week

The literary reference was Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1867 poem “Afternoon of a Faun.” Klausner described its relevance directly: “It tells the story of a faun, half-man, half-animal, a kind of dream-like creature who wakes up after a nap in a forest, and he is in a haze.” The haze was the collection’s governing register. Powdery hues, sometimes solid, sometimes gradient, sometimes rendered in smudged botanical prints, opened with an array of peachy neutrals and moved through what WWD describes as the spice rack, the water spectrum, and the forest floor. The palette was not decorative. It was structural, determining the weight and mood of every piece it touched.

How Acetates, Washed Silks, and Stocking-Weight Knits Produce Klausner’s Weightless Silhouettes

The fabric list reads as a deliberate rejection of structure: acetates, viscose, washed silks, chiffon, watery nylons, and nearly sheer stocking-weight knits. Klausner selected them “to keep this kind of very floaty feeling,” and the results are visible in the silhouettes. Cargo pants, typically a rigid category, gained a sensual flutter from the fabrics. Parkas acquired a drifting, flyaway quality. Dropped-shoulder construction and languid sleeves reinforced the sense of ease throughout.

Silk cargo pants with airy volume, unlined duster coats over wrinkled, semi-sheer crepe shirts, and silky short shorts formed the collection’s core. Forest prints and jacquard patterns appeared on coats. Sky prints covered utility parkas. A butter-soft caramel leather piece arrived with a matching clutch bag, and WWD’s review positions it as Klausner’s opening statement about his standing as a colorist in menswear. Pink ballet shoes appeared on several models. Wisps of feather in the hair completed the collection’s stated mythic-nature theme. A leopard-spotted bag, held with a single leopard-spotted gloved hand, introduced the kind of specific, slightly eccentric accessory detail that the Dries Van Noten customer has always expected.

Why Klausner’s Womenswear Background Gives Dries Van Noten an Advantage in the Current Menswear Conversation

Klausner came to the men’s role from the womenswear side of Van Noten, and that background is legible in every piece. “I approached it kind of on tiptoe, not knowing exactly what I was able to do,” he told Vogue. “But in a way, I benefited from a sort of freedom. I had nothing to lose.” That freedom has produced, across three seasons, a version of menswear that is unapologetically feminine without being costumey. The collection’s underlying erotic and queer romanticism, as Vogue’s review notes, is present in the sheer fabrics, the short shorts, and the ballet shoes, but it is held in place by the tonal layering that WWD describes as nonpareil.

The broader context is relevant. Multiple ملابس رجالية designers in Paris this season have been discussing softer, more gentle approaches to the category. Klausner is not discussing it. He is doing it from a position of institutional knowledge about how women’s fabrics and women’s proportions actually work. “The idea of sensuality guided many of our choices, colors and fabrications,” he said, “rendering wardrobe staples as clothing that feels soft and intimate.” WWD’s single reservation, that the designer may have dipped too deep into lingerie as a source, is fair. But the tonal layering won the reviewer over, and it will win the customer over too.

Julian Klausner’s third men’s collection for Dries Van Noten is the most assured statement he has made at the Antwerp-based house, and its assurance comes from its refusal to hedge. The fabrics are sheer. The shorts are short. The ballet shoes are pink. The Mallarmé reference is sincere. In a Paris season where many designers gestured toward softness, Klausner committed to it entirely, and the 100-degree heat made the commitment feel not only correct but necessary. The Van Noten brand’s reputation for color and print is, as Vogue’s review states, in very good hands.

See the collection below: