The Grand Tourist with Dan Rubinstein
Sep 23, 2026 · 38 min · 12 segments
On the 16th season premier, Dan speaks with the beloved designer Dries Van Noten. After presenting his last fashion collection in 2024, the Belgian impresario has begun a thrilling new adventure with…
Dries Van NotenGuestDan RubinsteinHostAnd did this start after you had already acquired the palazzo, so you had it in mind a little bit?
Well, uh, at first I started to work on a, on an exhibition that I didn't know if I would do it in a fondazione or that I would s- look for a museum who wanted to produce maybe then the... and, and show the exhibition which I was working on.
And obviously, th- the ideas about craft are become so, uh, such a big topic now, um, on so many different levels for different, different industries like fashion or design or, um, or art.
What do you hope to add to the conversation in, in when it, these sort of discussions arise about craft?
We have also to show young people that, uh, the mercantile aspect of, of craftsmanship.
Because it's very nice to talk about all the beauty of craft and how we need it and the beauty and everything, but if we won't convince young people that they, they want to make that kind of their profession, that they have to earn their living from it.
In that way we have, besides the, the, the, the fondazione here, we have also the magazzino, which is part of the fondazione, which is our shop where we sell also items made by young craftspeople, mask makers, kind of somebody with ceramics, a glass maker from Murano, a ceramist from Barcelona, all different things.
Did you see with, with designers, you know, uh, in the maybe in the past 10 years as design- younger designers, both in your studio and elsewhere, that maybe were, became the product of, of this sort of younger generation that is more disconnected from, from craft and from the actual know-how of these things? Or is that ...
Um, so recently had also a talk with kind of an Indian organization who works kind of about the craft and everything, and they say also like, "Yeah, everybody wants to work on a computer and nobody still wants to, to take a yarn and a needle and do some embroidery." So I think we really have to see, of course we need computers, but on the other hand, we need also the other side.
We don't have to keep that kind of existing in a fake kind of, uh, way that it's kind of, uh, sponsored or something like this.
No, it has to be something which is kind of alive and that it has a sense and, uh, and, and that it really has a reason of being.
And did this start after you had already acquired the palazzo, so you had it in mind a little bit?
Well, uh, at first I started to work on a, on an exhibition that I didn't know if I would do it in a fondazione or that I would s- look for a museum who wanted to produce maybe then the... and, and show the exhibition which I was working on.
And obviously, th- the ideas about craft are become so, uh, such a big topic now, um, on so many different levels for different, different industries like fashion or design or, um, or art.
What do you hope to add to the conversation in, in when it, these sort of discussions arise about craft?
We have also to show young people that, uh, the mercantile aspect of, of craftsmanship.
Because it's very nice to talk about all the beauty of craft and how we need it and the beauty and everything, but if we won't convince young people that they, they want to make that kind of their profession, that they have to earn their living from it.
In that way we have, besides the, the, the, the fondazione here, we have also the magazzino, which is part of the fondazione, which is our shop where we sell also items made by young craftspeople, mask makers, kind of somebody with ceramics, a glass maker from Murano, a ceramist from Barcelona, all different things.
Did you see with, with designers, you know, uh, in the maybe in the past 10 years as design- younger designers, both in your studio and elsewhere, that maybe were, became the product of, of this sort of younger generation that is more disconnected from, from craft and from the actual know-how of these things? Or is that ...
Um, so recently had also a talk with kind of an Indian organization who works kind of about the craft and everything, and they say also like, "Yeah, everybody wants to work on a computer and nobody still wants to, to take a yarn and a needle and do some embroidery." So I think we really have to see, of course we need computers, but on the other hand, we need also the other side.
We don't have to keep that kind of existing in a fake kind of, uh, way that it's kind of, uh, sponsored or something like this.
No, it has to be something which is kind of alive and that it has a sense and, uh, and, and that it really has a reason of being.
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