After more than two decades on a “roller coaster of non-stop working,” Belgian designer Kris Van Assche is taking a breather from the breakneck pace of the high-fashion industry. But he continues to seek out creative opportunities that challenge him and expand his design mediums.
In a conversation recorded at The Mark Hotel in New York for WWD Voices’ “Savage Fashion” series, Van Assche spoke with Jim Fallon, chief content officer of Fairchild Media Group, and Alex Badia, style director of FMG, about the past, present and future of his career.
Van Assche got his toes wet post-graduation by working as Hedi Slimane’s assistant at Yves Saint Laurent. From there, he moved with Slimane to Dior to build the Dior Homme line from the ground up. “It’s a priceless experience to experience a start-up on that level, because starting from scratch and me being there, knowing that it’s not just about designing the clothes, but it’s also about designing the labels and the linings and the buttons and the hangers and the shopping bags and the stores for that matter, like the whole package,” he said.
Van Assche took on the creative director role at Dior when Slimane exited and stayed in that position for 11 years — a tenure practically unheard-of in today’s fashion field, which has seen a “turmoil of designer change.” During his time, he introduced new muses for the brand such as A$AP Rocky, opting for authenticity and interesting artists over social media buzz.
Heading up design for fellow LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton house Berluti was a different beast, because there was no archive to pull from. While Dior had an established design language within men’s and womenswear, Berluti solely had shoes. This lack of boundaries led to what Van Assche called his best designs.
In addition to designing for these historic houses, Van Assche launched his own label in 2005. One of the biggest hurdles in running his own independent brand was budgetary constraints that frequently had the company in “survival mode.” In 2015, while still at Dior Homme, he made the “toughest decision of [his] life” to put his own brand on pause.
After several “monogamous” brand relationships over a 20-year period, Van Assche is enjoying several “love affairs” with creative pursuits, including branching out into projects beyond the fashion industry. Since leaving Berluti in 2021, Van Assche has not yet returned to the luxury fashion world, instead finding new avenues to challenge himself and learn. “It’s quite healthy to be able to express yourself in different directions,” he said.
At the time of the recording, Van Assche was in New York for the Basic.Space fair, where he was presenting sculptural bronze vases he created in partnership with François Laffanour Galerie Downtown Paris. Originally launched in June in Paris, the vessels mark the designer’s first venture into home decor. As Van Assche explained, creating vases was a natural fit. If he had not sought a career in fashion design, he would have been a florist.
The vases also reflect his perspective that design should slow down and allow consumers to hold onto items for longer than the fashion cycle typically revolves today. It took multiple years to create the pieces, and the hope is for them to sit in buyers’ homes for some time. “How do you expect people to follow you with proposals of garments or accessories that come with a high cost, and then explain in three months after that they need to get the new one?” he said. “I think that is the real challenge in fashion today is that, and what I’m doing with design is actually enjoying the slower pace of that.”
Being off the speedy fashion season schedule also gave him time to reflect on his archives and look at how his vision translated at different houses as he was compiling a book. His conclusion was, “I have been the same designer for the last 20 years. I just had different tools of expression.”
One through-line in Van Assche’s creations is a focus on beauty. “Everybody talks about extremes or radical things, or things need to be almost a little bit violent to get noticed,” he said. “Well, I’m way more about old world beauty in a sense and how to bring that in a contemporary way.”
Another endeavor has been a move into mass-market sportswear with Chinese giant Anta. Anta Zero x Kris Van Assche made its global debut last November at Dover Street Market Paris. The name Anta Zero refers to zero carbon, and for Van Assche, it has been an immersive exploration in eco-friendly product development. Materials used included recycled nylon, Responsible Down Standard fill and mycelium vegan leather. “It has allowed me to touch sustainability in a way that I had never done before in my luxury experiences,” he noted.
Although Van Assche’s fashion school degree is in womenswear, his career has centered mainly on dressing men. Anta is giving him a chance to design for women in activewear, but he also sees a place for his structural aesthetic in women’s fashion. “I’ve been playing hide and seek with womenswear for the last 20 years, and I’m hoping we’ll meet soon.”
To listen to the conversation, CLICK HERE.
