On April 14th, the class ‘Curating Fashion’ went to Antwerp, a fashion city became known for the influential avant-garde group of fashion designers – known as the Antwerp Six – and another series of groundbreaking fashion designers like Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Bernhard Willhelm, amongst many other. All graduated at the Royal Academy of Antwerp – from the early 1980s until the late 1990s – Antwerp fashion designers became famous for their capacity to create a sort of détournement of fashion industry.
Our Fashion Studies class was introduced to their work through a visit to the Fashion Museum of Province of Antwerp (www.momu.be) – also known as MoMu – where we were first introduced to the dress collection. Here we had the chance to see ‘in person’ designers’ landmark pieces by Margiela, Simons, Branquinho, Ackermann and many others. As we made our way through the sumptuous dress storage, the MoMu curator, Wim Mertends, discussed the issues and restrictions behind the work of a curator and the difficulties to conserve contemporary fashion.
Mertens introduced us to challenges of mannequinnage, the padding of the mannequin, the pose of the underlying stocking layer for garment protection, the fitting and the repertory of each piece. Discussing his work for the latest exhibition that was based on the work of Martin Margiela for Hermès, Mertens explained how Margiela himself took great care in adding his finishing touches through the pinning of each piece on the mannequins in order to adjust it to match his artistic vision to perfection.
The rest of our day was spent exploring the MoMu’s library where a variety of historical and contemporary books, sales catalogues, fashion memoirs and academic publications are available. In the archive of the library, we also had the chance to handle special Fashion Show ephemera (catalogues & invitations) ranging from Maison Martin Margiela to Yohji Yamamoto. All visual materials were a great source of inspiration, especially through the use of specific textures and editorial style in each brand’s story telling.
At the end of the day, we visited the exhibition “Margiela: The Hermès Years” that discussed the work of Martin Margiela for the French luxury brand Hermès. This exhibition was an important moment to discuss issues of authorship, brand heritage and creative process in the fashion industry – a central topic especially today where art directors are constantly changing fashion houses.
Images by Sarah Safar
