“A Handsome Woman”. This was Dries’ opening line for Spring Summer 2011, for his show held upon the banks of the River Seine in Paris on Wednesday. Evoking the louche ease of 1970s loungewear coupled with a mid-century waistline, Van Noten delivered a crisp, optimistic collection that wrote an exotic, feminine byline for the current wave of minimalism.

Opening with a study on the notion of a man’s white shirt and his wardrobe’s bulkiest outerwear (nipped in with a slim waist and a flared trouser), Dries cut a long, elegant silhouette in poplin, canvas and even denim. Channelling his transcontinental influences for the season – being the sparse, light-infused gradient canvases of Belgian artist Jef Verheyen and the ornate floral motifs of Chinese porcelain – garments began at both ends of this spectrum and successfully arrived between the two.

As such, a stiff cotton trench coat dissolved from bleached white into banana yellow, just as oriental blooms wound around a silk satin shirt dress. Wide, double-breasted tailoring cocooned around floaty shirting and brilliant pewter lurex, as sheer voile cape dresses exposed sleek camisoles or pearly paillettes swam like fishscales over a decadent sweater.

With an infectious optimism, Dries chose Florence & the Machine’s track “Dog Days Are Over” as the pumping musical accompaniment to this airy, textural outing, evoking a triumphant start to the week and a bright, youthful spirit – one part working woman, two parts jet-set glamour. Shaken, not stirred.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQsPq-16wg[/youtube]