Antwerp Six | The Blogazine - Contemporary Lifestyle Magazine

20/05/2013

Walter Van Beirendonck at Dallas Contemporary

Thinking about fashionable cities in US territory, Dallas is one of those you’d probably never mention, even by mistake.  That’s probably why Walter Van Beirendonck admitted having been surprised when Peter Doroshenko, Dallas Contemporary’s director, asked him for a solo exhibition in the city.  Beirendonck is one of the Antwerp Six – the avant garde collective that contributed to make Antwerp gain fashion incubator fame – and he is very fascinated of being part of an art exhibit: he believes that if fashion gives to clothes life and death in only 6 months, art can make them immortal, instead.

On the other hand, Mr. Doroshenko describes the Belgian designer as “one of the most important fashion designers in Europe” and his creations as “never about the everyday, they are pure theater.” He thought that showing his latest works in Texas’ capital city could be very interesting.  Even if Dallas appears as a conservative and quite silent city in the South of America, far from the shiny world of fashion, the city offers a lot of culture: it counts about 20 structures between galleries and museums.  “Lust never sleeps” and “Silent Secrets” are the collections presented in the show. The inspiration for the first, FW 2012-13, is inspired by Haiti voodoo rituals and Papua New Guinea, melted with an idea of abstract futuristic dandy. The second one, SS 2013, derives from a reaction to everything over-visible nowadays, due to the always-increasing social media world.  The one-of-a-kind pieces are shown on a series of motorized rotating pedestals, allowing visitors to experience the garments from every perspective.

The exhibition has coincided with the beginning of Arts Week, started on 12th April and the collections will be on show untill 19th August 2013.  Entrance at Dallas Contemporary is always free.

Francesca Crippa – images credit of Kevin TodoraIl

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09/05/2013

European Fashion Schools: Antwerp Royal Academy

When doing a series on the six most significant European fashion schools, it feels like a given to mention the school that gave birth to The Antwerp Six. Famous for the many creative talents that have left the building, the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts is evidently not new to the pages of The Blogazine. Despite its many appearances, we figured another review of the Belgian magic couldn’t hurt – for what is it in an education that calls forth a certain number of celebrated and legendary names?

Looking at the history, the school’s (fashion) popularity started in the early 80’s when the fashion department resided under the wings of Mary Prijot, and it was during that time when names like Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela were formed to skilled designers. Today’s Head of the Fashion Department, Walter Van Beirendonck, also attended the school during this hot 80’s period, and by the looks of it, he has carried some of the past into the future.

As in most academic educations a subject is looked at from the perspective of the society, and so also in Antwerp. Clothing is not only about the quality of fabrics, cuts and seams but also reflects on where the society is moving, and questions it. Not putting the creative quality aspect aside, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts provides their students with a creative artistic atmosphere: during four years the fashion students also share the halls with painters, sculptors and graphic designers and looking at the outcome they all seem to influence each other. The students at the academy are though always encouraged to find their own voice and not to mimic what their predecessors already did, as innovation and experimentation are two highly valued aspects. Surely many students choose Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts as their destination of education for the fame that lingers in the school halls, just like many probably are attracted by the fact that it’s here that known concepts are being turned 360° and back again. What regards the school’s location, Antwerpen feels near, yet so far from the rest of the industry, that it seems like the set-apart position on the map could entice as well as discourage future applicants. Whether it’s the name of the school, the name of previous graduates, the creative atmosphere or the city, it only seems natural that the younger generation of Antwerpian designers would channel what foregoes them and keep on bringing the academy forth.

Maybe it lies in the strong focus on innovative creativity or maybe Mary Prijot’s 80’s blueprint for the fashion department set the standard – whichever the case, the Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen has been one to watch over the last 30 years, and an uncrazy guess is that it will remain on the same list for another upcoming 30.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Boy Kortekaas & The Royal Academy of Fine Arts

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14/06/2012

The Antwerp Six – 33 Years Later

Last weekend a new breed of Antwerpian couturiers were presented as The Royal Academy of Fine Arts revealed the Graduate collections, 33 years after the birth of the infamous Antwerp Six.

In the year of 1988, Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee nailed Antwerp to the map as a fashion city. The group would eventually in the years of 80/81 graduate from the school, but in 88 they all squeezed together in a truck and headed for The London Fashion Fair where they presented their collections and marked a new era. Their aesthetics differences aside, the common ground was clearly the experimental silhouettes and conceptualism – no wonder Martin Margiela is often considered the 7th member of the family.

The international influence of the Antwerp Six is a complex and vast subject. However, while studying this years master’s students you soon realize that Van Noten, Margiela & Van Demeulemeester never really left the building.

Manon Kündig has channelled Van Noten’s sense of layering as well as colouring and printing. Ray Benedict Pador introduced a contemporary gothic man in the spirit of Van Deulemeester – with a pinch of S/M-culture. Finally, So Takayama sang her louanges to Margiela, as she sent her mannequins down the runway in exaggerated paper-like silhouettes.

Belgian designer Alexandra Verschueren, who graduated from the very same school in 2009, has acknowledged the Antwerp Six’s influence on the school and Belgian fashion community, “I think it definitely influenced me in a way. It always felt kind of weird to have six such great designers, since Belgium is such a small country.”

For the past 30 years the country has been a noted fashion nation in their own right, with a heritage that will continue to grow with every new generation of designers, as they interpret the days gone by.

Petsy von Köhler

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11/06/2012

Antwerp SHOW2012

Founded in 1663, the oldest of its kind in Europe and the starting point for Martin Margiela, Haider Ackermann, Peter Pilotto, Dries van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester (the two last-mentioned also being part of the far-famed Antwerp Six) among others, the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts is a school with a resourceful fashion department where creativity comes first. 7 – 9th of June it was time for SHOW2012, the final runway for the eleven Master Students about to graduate.

Outside of the trend hub where eventful glamour is represented in addition to the actual fashion, Antwerp is a city with its own profile. Fashion people are seen as individuals interested in the society and ethical issues aside from the aesthetics, and fashion is to be seen in the largest of senses. Maureen De Clercq, teacher in fashion design at the Academy, says that “the atmosphere is creative, dynamic and has a lot of energy”. The industry people come to the city to see the final runway shows, to be surrounded by and to be a part of that feeling.

As a school, the Academy focuses a lot on experimentation, improvisation and innovation, as well as on the creative talent and the students’ ability to express themselves through their drawings. As the viewer has to be kept interested and the media pushes out new trends, these focal points are to foster future designers to see above previous horizons and turn well-known concepts in their heads. Located near the industry but somehow isolated from the fashion hysteria, Antwerp and the Royal Academy with its students seem to have found their own rhythm within the industry, mediating a pragmatic calm where the explosive details are within the arts – which are blooming.

The SHOW2012 collections had extravagant details, often leaving conventional to the side. Through the presentations the collections called to evoke emotions and express something outside the garments. The graduates showcased their work by presenting the abilities of creativity, detailing and innovative techniques, before being thrown into the “real world”. With Antwerp’s resume and history in mind one can expect to come across the graduate names again – behind the name of a fashion house, scaled down or in their full blossom of extremity.

See a complete runway video from SHOW2012 here.