The international success story of Antwerp fashion

The Six (Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee): a household name in the fashion world. The group name was launched by British journalists in the late 1980s, but it has turned out to be a curse as well as a blessing because it has pushed the identity of each designer in the group into the background and become a flag that long ceased to match the content. Antwerp fashion has undergone a major development, and the story of ‘the Antwerp Six’ needs to be set within a wider perspective. That is the purpose of the exhibition 6+. Antwerpse Mode in the Flemish Parliament building.

The exhibition and catalogue place Antwerp fashion and the designers who received their training in Antwerp within a broad historical and artistic context. The plus sign in the title refers to Martin Margiela, often mentioned along with the Six, and to the later generations of designers who have in turn added new facets to Antwerp fashion.

This books brings you the international success story of Antwerp fashion in four parts. The first focuses on the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp. Unique photo and video documents show how the local fashion design department with its Parisian orientation grew to become the famous Fashion Academy.

The second part covers the 6+: ‘the Six’ and Martin Margiela, their shared ambition and development and The Golden Spool competitions, the turning-point that marked their real start.

Part three deals with the new generation, the second wave of Antwerp designers who have achieved an international reputation, such as Raf Simons, Véronique Branquinho, A.F. Vandevorst, Lieve Van Gorp, Patrick Van Ommeslaeghe, and Bernhard Willem.

There are also many talented students from the Academy who decided not to operate as designers under their own name but to join the international world of fashion as art directors, stylists or photographers. They often play a large part in creating the image that the well-known international houses present. Part four provides a survey of those designers, who have an evident connection with the Antwerp school.