Years of friendship have forged a life-long collaboration between renowned Belgian designers Gert Voorjans and Dries Van Noten. The result? More than 30 stunning stores in key cities globally including Tokyo and Paris
“I think we were a bit predestined to end up working together,” the interior designer Gert Voorjans laughs while narrating how his decades-long partnership with fashion designer Dries Van Noten began. The creative duo met in Antwerp, where they both live, in the Nineties, a few years following the breakthrough of the fashion collective Antwerp Six, of which Van Noten is a part of. The Antwerp Six’s distinct radical vision for fashion, which flourished in the mid-Eighties, had established Belgium’s second-largest metropolitan city as a notable destination for fashion design. “I was a big fan [of him]. I wanted to be dressed in all his clothes. We shared wonderful musical evenings and cultural events. We carry the same interests and sort of speak the same ‘language’,” he adds. Back then, Voorjans was working under the tutelage of Axel Vervoordt, another famous name in the interior design scene in Belgium. “Dries came over to Vervoordt’s Gravenwezel castle a lot because it was a very unique setting then,” he continues. Voorjans ended up working full time for Van Noten. “After working for him in Japan for two years, I suggested contributing freelance and to make him a priority whenever there are [Dries Van Noten] flagship stores to be designed.”
Their friendship gave birth to over 30 Dries Van Noten stores worldwide—all of which radiate rich layers and explosive energetic colours that the two designers are known for. “We understand each other and have the same views in aesthetics. His approach on how to use colours with materials is very likewise my approach for interiors. We both like twisting, enrapturing and stunning elements. I feel like a certain punch, sexiness and twist need to be present in my interiors, like Dries in clothing, to make the rest more fascinating. It’s all about character, colour, craftsmanship and a bit of fun. The work I do is more of an assemblage in an artistic way, creating a clash by having the qualities of the past meet some extreme from today,” says Voorjans.