KrisVanAssche MF14 (3)PARIS, Jan 17, 2014/ — Those who follow Kris Van Assche knows that he names collection by the number, hence it goes without saying that this is his 19th collection for his eponymous label. And what a glorious 19 seasons it has been, having had the honor of attending his first ever show in Paris.

And in this nine and half years, Kris Van Assche has created his own traditions, which he “transformed and transposed, made dynamic, enlarged, sporty and ultimately made into a pop statement.”

The statement was a double entendre as Kris Van Assche delves into his own archives and expands it wider and finding inspiration from the work of John Baldessari.

“I was looking at the work of John Baldessari, that black and white photorealism contrasted with bright, abstracted colour. There is a picture – Man Running – that has a man in a black suit, running really quickly, his face obscured by a big blue dot. That idea of a formal element contrasted with an idea of sport, something playful with abstraction all fitted with things I was thinking about,” commented Kris Van Assche.

Taking traditional key motifs, such as the chevrons of herringbone or the individual teeth of houndstooth, playing with their scale, transforming them into blown up photo prints or transposing them to fleeced appliqués, has made such motifs of the traditional in menswear into dynamic fashion statements that run throughout the collection and give a sense of graphic immediacy.