Kris Van Assche Brings Back His Signature Label — Smaller, Direct, and Built on Deadstock
Kris Van Assche is bringing back his namesake label, more than a decade after shutting it down. The Belgian designer confirmed the relaunch exclusively to WWD on 31 August 2026, with a first collection of roughly 40 styles for men and women set to go live on krisvanassche.com around mid-September. WWD
The new label looks nothing like the old business. Van Assche closed the first iteration in 2015, when it shipped to about 130 doors — boutiques and department stores — across 32 countries, with its strongest markets in Japan and Hong Kong. A freestanding Paris store went dark at the same time. Back then, the brand was known for youthful tailoring mixed with athletic and workwear references, and Van Assche was among the first designers to pair men's suits with high-top sneakers.
This time, the model is deliberately small. Van Assche works with a tiny team and has designed a concentrated collection spanning jackets, shirts, trousers, skirts, dresses and knitwear. Distribution is direct-to-consumer — meaning he sells straight to the buyer through his own website, with no wholesale middleman. The pieces are cut from high-quality deadstock fabrics: leftover cloth from mills and houses that would otherwise go unused. WWD
Pricing sits at the lower end of designer. Shirts land around 400 to 500 euros; jackets start near 1,000 euros. Teaser images point to a dressed-up, tailored direction for men and dressmaking with a sensual bent for women. One image shows a single rose stem sheathed in plastic, tied with a ribbon reading "write more love letters." The collection mixes re-editions of signature Van Assche styles with new designs.
The relaunch closes a long loop. Van Assche graduated from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1998 with a womenswear degree and had dabbled in womenswear under his own label between 2008 and 2010. He spent 11 years as creative director of Dior Homme — the menswear division of LVMH's Christian Dior — followed by three years at Berluti, the LVMH-owned leather-goods house, before parting ways with that brand in 2021. WWD
Since leaving Berluti, Van Assche kept busy beyond fashion. He designed ceramics for the Belgian homeware brand Serax, exhibited bronze sculptures with Downtown Gallery, and collaborated with Fred Perry and with Anta, the Chinese sportswear group. He also launched a first collection for Anta's Antazero label. WWD; Fantastic Man
More collaborations are in the pipeline, Van Assche said, and will appear on his website alongside the namesake collection. For a designer who once dressed the suits-and-sneakers crowd across 32 countries, the return is intimate by design — a few dozen pieces, one website, no stores.
