Growing up in the remote Belgian town of Londerzeel, which he describes as “so dull it wasn’t ever bourgeois,” Kris Van Assche didn’t get much exposure to the glamorous Fashion world, except via books about design heroes like Yohji Yamamoto, or copies of Italian Fashion magazines he would special order.

It’s one of the reasons he agreed to publish a book about his career so far, spanning 55 collections across his own brand, Dior Homme and Berluti: He hopes it inspires young people to understand the possibilities for a career in Fashion. “I feel books are very important,” he stresses.

Organized chronologically, it’s a warts-and-all look back — if, like Van Assche, you cringe over a less-than-perfect color and fabric choice — for the designer included complete run-of-shows for everything he turned out. Not one look was edited out to offer “the complete picture.”

“There are collections I’m less at ease with, but they ended up being turning points,” he says.

The 432-page tome also lifts the veil on Van Assche’s personal life, opening with an adorable First Communion portrait (he was six and wears a necktie), ending with a snap of him with his longtime partner Mauricio Nardi, and sprinkled throughout with quotes from his mechanic father Hugo and odes to his paternal grandmother.

The designer lamented that he’s long been labeled “the cold one” by journalists for always keeping interviews centered on his collections, ideas and working methods.

The reality is that family members attended each and every one of his Fashion shows in Paris, and this book exalts their lingering influence; his grandmother, an “over-the-top” aesthete who considered dressing well a form of politeness, and his parents, advocates of “working your way up,” who enrolled their teenage son in art classes and encouraged him to pursue his interest in Fashion. His mother, who died in 2022, was a secretary, and Van Assche describes his parents as “down-to-earth, hard-working, normal people.”

The book is confessional at times. Van Assche was keenly aware of the challenge ahead of him in 2007 when he was tapped to succeed Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme after an acclaimed tenure that profoundly impacted menswear, even long after Slimane exited. (Van Assche started in Fashion as an intern for Slimane when he was at Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, and joined as his first assistant when Slimane moved to Dior.)

“I knew that some critics were out there waiting for me with bazookas,” Van Assche writes in the book of his arrival at the creative helm of Dior Homme. “It was an impossible situation. But I did end up taking the job and I never regretted it because the team was incredibly welcoming to me.”

Even for those who have followed Van Assche’s career, the book serves as a reminder that the designer was one of the first to finish off men’s suits with athletic sneakers, one of the many ways he blended luxury and streetwear codes. He was also one of the first to make elastic-waisted, sweatpant-like wool trousers, sock-like shoes, hourglass-shaped jackets — and to use Woodkid music for his runway soundtrack.

A$AP Rocky adds one more first. “I was the first Black, male model signed at Dior. And I’m proud of that,” he says, referring to Dior Homme’s fall 2016 campaign, for which he donned a red, double-breasted topcoat.

Not that Van Assche, now 47, ever billed himself as a cutting-edge, trendsetting designer.

The forced look back at his career reminded him that he’s always made wearable, realistic clothes for active lives.

“I’m not a provocateur, I’m not into concepts, but I am into beauty,” he muses. “I came to terms with that and I think there’s a need for that.”

From his very first signature collection there was a sense of “reality,” he writes in the book. “It is about a romantic idea of men. Real men, rolling up their sleeves, getting their hands dirty: the dynamic, active, working man.”

His mechanic father has been a touchstone throughout his career, seen in workwear styles, utilitarian details, and the designer’s penchant for collaborating only with artists who get their hands dirty making their works.

In hindsight, Van Assche’s idea of dressing an “active, dynamic, sporty, even sexy kind of guy” was distinct from the dominant rocker trend at the time.

Boyhood has been another recurrent theme. “I’m always inspired by this moment in a young man’s life where you go from boyhood to adulthood — when you understand that the way you look makes a difference: their first suit, their first date, their first job interview,” the designer explains.

He dabbled in womenswear under his signature brand between 2008 and 2010, reflecting the fact that he specialized in womenswear as a student at Antwerp’s famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts under course director Walter Van Beirendonck.

Van Assche confesses that assembling the book was a “total nightmare because I’m really bad at doing my own archives.” About 5,000 emails later, and a huge assist from the book’s editor Grace Johnston, it’s ready for release on Oct. 2 in Europe.

But in the end, he found the process therapeutic, ending with him being at peace with his career to date, and ready to tackle his next chapter in the Fashion world.

Van Assche entrusted acclaimed French graphic design duo Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag of M/M (Paris) to design his visual compendium, in which small blocks of text float on pages with very small or supersized photos. Journalist Anders Christian Madsen wrote the introduction, arguing that “with his restrained, pristine approach and his devotion to old-world beauty, Kris’ work consistently reflects his broader transformations within the culture of Fashion.”

Published by Belgian imprint Lannoo, “Kris Van Assche: 55 Collections” boasts photos by Paolo Roversi, Willy Vanderperre, Nan Goldin, David Sims, Alasdair McLellan, Sarah Moon, Nick Knight, Patrick Demarchelier, Jeff Burton and Inez & Vinoodh.