Dries Van Noten’s Brilliantly Sleek Sneaker, Simplified
With his penultimate collection at the helm of his eponymous brand, Dries Van Noten left one particularly salient gift to the Belgian fashion house he ran for almost four decades. And that was a sleek, suede, low-profile sneaker.
At the last gasp, Van Noten added another signature style to his much-raved-about brand. The list of Van Noten specialties now reads: satin shirting, maximalist prints, in-your-face colors, and, for the first time, sneakers.
That retro runner was an immediate hit.
Fashion platform LYST quickly dubbed it one of fashion’s hottest products, an assertion backed up by a growing batch of rave reviews coming by way of GRWM-style TikToks. And soon, this very publication was declaring that the shoe is the single best post-Samba sneaker.
Fast forward to today, and we have entered a new era. Van Noten’s label is now helmed by a new creative director — Julian Klausner, who was hired from within the brand’s ranks — but the soft suede sneaker stays resolute.
That doesn’t mean the shoe isn’t being tinkered with, though.
Klausner’s debut menswear collection, Spring/Summer 2026, featured the sneaker in new colorways and materials. However, it also unveiled some more far-reaching interventions.
Silky-fabricated pairs transformed it into a high-top sneaker, almost akin to a slim boxing shoe. While others made things painfully simple.
Worn in SS26’s debut look (and a few thereafter) was a sneaker that strips Van Noten's suede slim-profile shoe to its bare bones. There was no more contrasting white leather panels on the medial sides of the shoe, nor was there a T-shaped toe box or zigzag trimmed leather around the laces.
This suede sneaker is now adornment-free. The only thing left is its streamlined shape.
Klausner has reimagined his predecessor's last great hit. And he’s done it by taking away all the unnecessary decoration.
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