François-Noël Cherpin is a costume designer based in Amsterdam whose imaginative costumes have received critical acclaim both in the Netherlands and internationally. 

Before working as a designer, François-Noël started his career as a professional dancer. Born in Roanne, France, he took his first dance lessons at the age of seven. After studying ballet in Paris and graduating from Mudra International in Brussels, he joined the Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet). There, he performed and created roles in the entire classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertoires and worked with internationally renowned choreographers. 

Whilst still a dancer, François-Noël created his first costumes for choreographer and at present Dutch National Ballet director Ted Brandsen. To this day they maintain a long-standing collaboration with François-Noël designing the costumes for amongst many others Carmen, Romeo&Juliet, Pulcinella, Firebird, Coppelia and Mata Hari. 

For Dutch National Ballet he has also created the costumes for the new productions of Balanchine’s Who Cares? and Ballet Imperial as well as Rachel Beaujean’s new version of Paquita for which he also created the set design. Beyond François-Noël’s extensive work for Dutch National Ballet, he has also designed costumes for numerous dance companies including West Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Portugal, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Semperoper Dresden and Théâtre National de Bordeaux. 

A versatile designer who enjoys creative collaborations he has worked on several projects across fashion and the performing arts such as Nochera, a high-end dance wear label inspired by the world of Tango and the live action/animation film of Coppelia which was released in cinemas around the globe in 2021. 

Most recently François-Noël was invited by Dutch National Ballet’s Young Creative Associate, Milena Sidorova, to create the costumes for her dance film Rose which premiered online as well as for Sidorova’s first large scale creation for Dutch National Ballet Regnum. At the invitation of choreographer Raimondo Rebeck, he also designed the costumes for Astana Opera’s new production of Cinderella which premiered in Astana in October 2022. In 2023 he will be designing the costumes for Ted Brandsen’s new creations Eroica Variations for Polish National Ballet and Chairman Dances for Dutch National Ballet.