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The history of the fashion department of the Antwerp academy The Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen) was founded in 1663, by David Teniers the younger, painter of the Archduke Leopold and Don Juan of Austria. The original Academy encouraged the study of painting, sculpting, engraving and book printing. It was only in the sixties of the twentieth century that forms of “applied arts” became more important in the Academy, prove is a number of new departments that were added to the academy. Examples are photography and jewellery, and of course fashion!
Fashion at the Antwerp Academy is more than designing clothes. Fashion is seen here in the broadest sense of the word: as a form of expression of the emotions of our times. The media want to keep the public interested so they make a quick succession of new trends in fashion, so the fashion department wants to stimulate innovation. The students are encouraged to create and explore innovative forms, new colour combinations, etc. In 1996 the Antwerp Academy became part of the Hogeschool Antwerpen. To become a student of the Fashion Department one has to take an obligatory entrance exam. The whole curriculum has four years. In the first two years the most important courses are fashion design, graphics and tailoring/pattern design. In the third year the students must present a collection of 8 silhouettes. They must search for inspiration in a European or non-European culture. In fact the students must recreate a typical costume or dress. It is only in the final year that the students must present their very own collection. All the learned skills and techniques should be used here! Students must make a show of at least 12 silhouettes. These fashion shows are open for public and extremely popular. The shows for 2003 are planned the12 th, 13 th and 14 th of June. This annual fashion show is a celebration of fashion, bringing together some 6,000 spectators from Belgium, France, England, Italy, Germany, Holland, U.S.A. and Japan, from all over the world, not only to judge and/or admire the collections of our students, but also to enjoy the unique atmosphere of this grand fashion show. Nowadays the fashion department attracts students
from around the world. Every year some 160 students start in the first
grade, but only 8 of them will graduate four years later. The courses
and the teachers, Walter Van Beirendonck is one of them, demand total
commitment to fashion and individuality. But the reputation of the Antwerp
fashion Institute is enormous, when you manage to graduate, you are ready
to design, show and sell your own collections. The MoMu On a cold winter day the four of us went to the Momu
in Antwerp. On the first floor you find the Momu, with the collection of the ‘Vrieselhof’ and a complementary collection of contemporary designers. On the second floor there’s a library and a reading room together with the Flanders Fashion Institute. The students of the academy work in their atelier on the third and last floor. More on the Momu-collection: Fabrics and tools, but mostly
clothes, lace and embroidery from the Southern Netherlands find their
place in the MoMu. The oldest pieces date to about 1500, but as regards
content the stress lays on the 19th century. The Momu adds pieces from
Belgian fashion designers with broad attention for the ‘Antwerp
six’ Dries Van Noten, Marina Yee, Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester,
Dirk Bikkembergs and Dirk Van Saene. They gave the Flemish fashion world
in the eighties an own face. Further you can see creations of younger
designers from Antwerp such as Véronique Branquinho, Lieve Van
Gorp, Wim Neels or Raf Simons.
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