Etienne Russo has produced so many fashion shows that he has no idea exactly what number. He says: “It must be maybe 1,200 or 1,300. I used to count them, but then it became too many to count.” One number he does now for certain is how many shows he’s produced for Dries Van Noten: 129. That’s every show Van Noten has ever presented. And this Saturday night, Russo will have the bittersweet task of working with the designer on show 130–a milestone moment that will also mark Van Noten’s final appearance on his runway. After he has taken that last bow, Van Noten will remain with his eponymous brand as an adviser, but from a distance. His famous garden is beckoning.
Russo first met Van Noten back in the 1980s when his fellow Belgian was emerging as part of the Antwerp Six. Russo, a former chef, had been a model for designers including Walter Van Beirendonck before he began working in sales and event production for Van Noten’s emerging brand. And then, when the time came for Van Noten to present his first-ever fashion show in Paris, he asked Russo to put it together. Back then, for that first show, Russo was effectively a one man band. Once established, however, he founded Villa Eugénie, which is today one of fashion’s pre-eminent show shapers and has around 120 employees. Key clients (Noten apart), include Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Dior.
In advance of Saturday’s last Van Noten show—will there be a dry eye in the house?—we sat down with Russo. He shared his memories of what he counts as some of the most notable shows—for reasons often exquisite and occasionally unfortunate—during his many years working with Dries.
Spring 1992 Menswear
“I mean this was a lot. This was my first show in Paris, and my first show producing for Dries Van Noten. The theme was Fear and Fortune. It was the fifth of July 1991, at 7 pm. And it was in the Hotel Saint-James & Albany, in the basement. The music I remember was Dean Martin: “That’s Amoré.” The idea was to have a little theater, Italian style, but one where you could see that not everything was perfectly done. It was meant to be a village, very naive. We had laid down grass as the set. But the funny thing was that because it was in a basement, and there was no sunlight, and we had laid it down the day before, on the day of the show the grass had all turned brown. We had to airbrush it—spray paint through a compressor… So I got very nervous. Before the show Dries was looking for me everywhere. But I had locked myself in the toilet. I had got so stressed, I kind of froze. But eventually I came out. The show had to start. And we did it, that was the beginning of the story.”