Paris Fashion Week: Lazy days with Dries Van Noten

Menswear-inspired clothing has been almost totally absent from the runways for the spring 2011 season -- until now.

Belgian designer Dries Van Noten used classic menswear pieces as a way to achieve easy summertime dressing. He brought color and lightness to oversized blazers, full trousers, trench coats, even jeans, all dip-dyed in Easter-egg shades of pink, violet and cornflower blue.

Van Noten seemed to be suggesting a new kind of uniform, following on the heels of the fall season's military styles. Only this time, it was all about relaxed silhouettes and paring down -- the ease of a pale sparkly sweater paired with wide-legged white cargo pants, or a silk dress in a delicate floral print, cinched with an iridescent-silver skinny belt.

There were even a couple pairs of floral silk pajama pants. Talk about no-fuss fashion.

-- Booth Moore in Paris

Dries van Noten spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery

Photos: Looks from the Dries Van Noten spring-summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times