A look from Dries Van Noten’s Fall 2011 collection.  Now imagine the dress with even more prints, as selected by laypeople.

Okay, well Dries Van Noten is actually only letting Germans, or lucky expats in Berlin, design their own dresses, but nonetheless, we think the offbeat designer’s new initiative is pretty great.  In conjunction with a Berlin shop called Andrea Murdukis, Van Noten is letting customers pre-order one of his sleeveless Fall 2011 dresses through September 15, in up to five out of 30 mix-and-match prints, all culled from the designer’s past 12 seasons.  Which prints are used on the dress is a sartorial choice left entirely to the buyer.

We imagine it’ll be a fun luxury shopper who goes in for the challenge.  It’s certainly an unusual offer coming from such an esoteric luxury designer.