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These are Dries Van Noten boys. These are boys you want to touch. You can’t help it. They appear tactile. You see them and instinctively your arm reaches out to caress. Stroke. Shower their skin with a shower of fingertips. It’s the same with the clothes. Don’t you love how Van Noten thinks? How he carefully picks boys who reflect the clothes? Boys who mimic the texture of the fabrics and the delicate, frayed edges of the seams. So much so that it takes every ounce of restraint to stop yourself from pinning them down and running your hands all over their faces. I like to think that, when discussing the look of the boys with his casting director, Van Noten said four words, “Tadzio, Death in Venice.” In fact, I’m pretty sure that if Thomas Mann were to see the casting, were he still alive to be able to see a Dries show, he would be overcome by the army of Tadzio clones marching past him. Anyway, I like to think Van Noten asked for creatures with an otherworldly glow, of clear, translucent skin, so youthful, so fresh-faced they appear almost ageless. And no, we are not the types to be overcome by unclean thoughts when thinking of boys. We are merely overcome by the power of beauty. The power of Dries casting. These boys, note, have no pores.
Photographer: Jason Lloyd-Evans
By Natalie Dembinska