
Name: Dries Van Noten
DOB: 12 May 1958
Place of birth: Antwerp, Belgium
Occupation: Fashion Designer
Mr. Van Noten, when your father retired, he preferred to close his company rather than sell it. Can you imagine your eponymous fashion label going on without you?
I hope that my company could live without me because I have the responsibility for people who work with us – those in the company in Antwerp and those who produce our clothes, who print our fabrics, who embroider. We have nearly three thousand people in India who embroider all our things by hand. It would be a pity if the moment I say, “I’ve had it, I’m stopping,” all those people would be kind of unemployed. And especially the knowledge that we have tried to keep alive in small villages in India or a small mill in Cornwall that’s still doing hand-woven fabrics. So, I really hope it’s possible and I’m convinced that we’re structuring things so that if something would happen, the company can live without me. As a responsible fashion designer, you have to work like that, I think. It would be a bit selfish to say, “It can be only me who can make this survive.”
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