Kris Van Assche brings back his own label after 10-year pause

Kris Van Assche is putting his own name back on clothes.

The Belgian designer has relaunched his signature label with a new collection for men and women, the first under that name since he paused it in 2015. The online store was set to go live on Thursday, according to WWD.

He pressed pause in 2015. He had launched the label in 2005, building it alongside high-profile jobs elsewhere in Paris menswear.

This time he will sell direct-to-consumer only, meaning through his own shop rather than through wholesale, selling to other stores that resell. An earlier preview had pointed to arrival by mid-to-late September, and his official site had listed the launch as "COMING SOON" with an email sign-up.

The offer is described as a tight edit of fashion essentials. It revisits pieces from the early years of the label rather than starting from a blank page.

For men, that includes a roomy grey blazer with necktie piping along the lapels, a shirt with permanently pushed-up sleeves, and loose dress pants with cargo pockets. For women, the collection adds sequin pencil skirts, open-back dresses and puff-sleeve sweatshirts. Van Assche previously sold womenswear under his own name between 2008 and 2010.

Look closely and you find a private message. The phrase "Write more love letters" appears on hanger loops, inside jackets and on shirt plackets.

How it is made is part of the story. The collection is realised with only deadstock fabrics, leftover cloth that was produced but never used. Materials came from dealers in Belgium and Paris, including Nona Source. Production returned to Gysemans BVBA, the Belgian manufacturer that made the label's historic collections.

Van Assche graduated in 1998 from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp with a womenswear degree. He then headed Dior Homme, the menswear arm of the French house Dior, for 11 years, followed by three years designing Berluti, the menswear house known for shoes and leather goods.

He had been named to lead shoes, leather goods, ready-to-wear and accessories at Berluti, with his first collection due to show in January. More recently he collaborated with Fred Perry, the British clothing brand, on a 13-piece collection aiming to "elevate the uniform of youth."

What makes this stand out is the scale. No runway show. No wholesale rollout. Just a small, self-sold wardrobe built from existing cloth and old ideas, reworked for men and women together.