Photos: Imaxtree

PARIS—Though Dries Van Noten‘s never one to shy away from a print, the designer really went wild this season, offering a variety of patterns in a swath of colors across his gorgeous fall collection.  While watching his show in Paris this afternoon, the following things popped into my head:

1. Those scarf tops from the early 90s, except so much better (and work appropriate).  Van Noten printed silk blouses, skirts and trousers with navy, blue and gold prints that looked like they’d been lifted off your all time favorite scarf.

2. Katsushika Hokusai’s wave print. Though it didn’t actually show up in the collection, wave-like crests were included in the blue and orange prints.

3. Dries Van Noten fall 2010. In between the Japanese-inspired prints, Van Noten offered his favorite color combination, black, navy and army green, often over white turtlenecks and once, with a leopard print bag.

4. Japanese screens. Those black lacquered paneled screens painted with gold birds and parasol-carrying women? Hello looks 4, 6 and 8.

5. Over-sized round lollipops. Though the faded blue, orange, green and purple stripes showed up on a handful of silhouettes, the dress in look 23 made the lightbulb go off: old-fashioned lollipops!

6. The Cookie Monster! If anyone does a story on runway looks that resemble Sesame Street characters (and we mean that as a good thing), Van Noten’s third to last look, topped with a shaggy turquoise fur, will be a shoe in for the Cookie Monster.