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She, fourth year collection by Anke Loh, 1999.

German born Anke Loh enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp in 1995. She graduated four years later with the collection She, a manifesto for strong women inspired by Pina Bausch and Pipilotti Rist, resulting in a very light silhouette.

Anke Loh started her own line after graduating from the Academy. Her designs explore the symbiosis of design and technological innovation, which she researches through diverse projects and collaborations. She has designed costumes for choreographic works by Arco Renz, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and others. She has also taught at the Fashion Academy in Ghent. In 2005, she was invited to give a lecture at the Fashion Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was immediately hired as a teacher. In 2013, she was awarded her professorship. Her investigation of wearable technology has been further developed in collaboration with science faculties and such companies as Philips and Luminex.

Silhouettes by Tim Van Steenbergen and Kris Van Assche, at the Pass, 1998. By January, the students are expected to have the collection planned out, with five complete silhouettes ready to display at the ‘Pass’ (fitting) alongside their sketches and scrapbooks. The Pass can be an overwhelmingly stressful event; a midpoint in the passage of each academic year when students must present their work, inspiration and ideas to more than a dozen professors of the Academy, all arranged Last Supper-style at a long table. Criticism given at the Pass is forthright — students are picked up for failing to fully translate their ideas into garments, for poor technique, for failing to meet deadlines and even for a lack of passion and integrity. Consequently, gossip abounds among the alumni, brimming with horror stories past and present. The Pass is a very distinctive part of the Academy education. While its principle function is to assess students’ progress midway through the year, it also ensures that graduates can present themselves and their ideas in a clear and sophisticated manner.

Martin Margiela autumn—winter 1999. The nightmare of the earth’s atmosphere in danger became a reality at the end of the twentieth century. As a result, clothes whose function was to protect the body came back into the spotlight once again. Margiela used bed blankets filled with down as fabric for a coat. By putting the cover over it, it can be worn even in rainy weather, and is guaranteed to be warm and lightweight.

Jurgi Persoons spring—summer 1997. Heel-only shoe in wood and patent leather. The heel is a reproduction of a 1950s sandal.

Make-up by Peter Philips and Rudi Cremers. Styling by Olivier Rizzo. Photography by Willy Vanderperre. (For Sputnik). Clothes by Raf Simons.   Trained as a hairdresser, Rudi Cremers got drawn into fashion when doing the make-up for a test shoot. His career as a visagist for model agencies took off from there. That was in 1988.  He creates the make-up for Ann Demeulemeester’s shows — they’ve been a very loyal combination for years — and regularly joins up with make-up teams for shows and photo-sessions of other Belgian designers. Different from Inge Grognard’s dramatic, avant-garde look, which is her trademark, Cremers is known for both his natural and more glamorous ‘movie-star’ approach. Cremers has not ventured much on the international scene. He is of the faithful type, and, apart from the ‘timidity’ of its magazines, he claims that Belgium is the perfect country to live and work in.

A.F. Vandevorst spring—summer 1999.

For A.F. Vandevorst a garment that has been worn, has more ‘spirit’, more ‘soul’. An opinion they assimilated in their Spring-Summer 1999 collection by proposing clothes that look as if they have been slept in. The show took place in an old dormitory, and the clothes were presented by models sleeping in iron hospital beds. Lauded by the international press and fashion world, the duo received the Venus de la Mode award for most promising designer.

Hirofumi Kurino: Having seen a fashion show too many, I sometimes feel exhausted. It all seems a big waste to me then. I presume others must have the same feeling but still, they always seem ready for another show. I am fed up with this craze, this talk about fashion, the irresponsibility of journalists just chasing news. This ‘fashion for fashion’s sake’ is quite meaningless.

But there are moments of magic. Many people will agree with me when I mention the three A.F. Vandevorst shows, in 1998 and 1999. Knowing these were their first presentations, we were more than amazed; I felt healed, saved, rescued.

Wim Neels spring—summer 1998.

Wim Neels, who has tailoring in his blood, graduated from the Academy of Antwerp in 1988. He worked as Walter Van Beirendonck’s assistant for 5 years and was a finalist for the Golden Spindle awards in 1991.

His first collection of womenswear was launched in March 1991, followed by his first menswear collection in 1996.

Wim Neels is at his best when he gives us his vision on the ‘basics’ of the western wardrobe. He produces all the pieces either men or women could ever need: suits, coats, shirts, trousers, skirts and knitwear.

His garments differ from standard basics in that their cut and tailoring are absolutely superior. They look simple, but are never plain. This is fashion that tends to suggest rather than display its presence.

His motto, ‘Past Present Future’, is applicable to both collections. Old and new techniques are used to produce the clothes. Old materials are transformed into contemporary models by his handling of them. At the same time, he uses old pattern techniques with new materials. What once was menswear is 'mutated’ into womenswear by its styling.

So the interchangeability of the two collections relates both to the use of materials and to the modelling. The same materials are often used for both collections, ranging from rough — like wool, to soft — like silk. There are identical items in both collections in terms of design. It’s up to the wearer to decide to what extent the garment is masculine or feminine. The pieces from both collections are therefore easy to combine. In the end, he sees them both in the same way and works them out with the same vision.

The only detail that makes it easy for the cognoscenti to identify a top immediately as a Wim Neels design is the label sewn on the outside; rather than conveying the name of a posh fashion house, it states matter-of-factly what the garment is: Blouson. Caban. Cache-Poussière.

Anna Heylen autumn—winter 2002—03. 

Walter Van Beirendonck spring—summer 1988.   The summer collection ‘88 Un Autre Monde (another world) endeavours to merge visions from greatly differing worlds. The world and visions of Jules Verne (high-tech visions from the year 1870), the world of the African Massai, Nuba and Wodaabe tribes, whose way of life is still primitive, closely earth-linked and basic, but which posses a rich culture and fantastic body ornaments. Reminiscent of the Flinstone family (Pebbles, Bam Bam and Dino), of submarines and uniforms, impressions from “Blue Velvet” and “Angel heart”, prehistoric figures and even inspiration from Sado, Walter’s dog, have lent the collection the necessary essence of humour and fun, it’s aggression and strength. Clothing for active, strong and 'fantastic’ people, who have an interest in the past, but are already living in the future. The silhouettes are nicely rounded off and inspired by helmet-wearing divers, together with a touch of folklore. The outsides of the models feature various details that are sometime subtle, sometimes aggressive. Navels, buttocks and sex are accentuated; there are even rubber nipples on some items. Hand-knitted pullovers and cardigans feature check patterns and stripes, dogs and bones, African armbands and necklaces and body paintings. Prehistoric creatures, “safe-sex-bones" and figures from 2001 are featured in sweatshirts, t-shirts and trousers. Black, shiny straw hats, bones in the hair, T.Rex.-and Bam Bam caps. Diver’s and pilot’s goggles, telescopes and cameras inspire spectacles. Basic colours, shades of red, blue and green mixed with beige, off-white, green, navy, blue and black. Fabrics feature Vichy checks and square patterns. Cotton gabardine trousers, cool wool, Swiss cotton, crepe, silk, leather and rough, checked, elasticised folklore-look are all featured.

Bruno Pieters (Royal Academy for Fine Arts, Antwerp) graduated in 1999 with the collection PROJECT π1. (Photo: study of one garment, ‘Printed top’. Make up: skin disease). From the catalogue Academy show 1999: Concept: (Step 1) Eliminating the ‘total look’: leaving behind the idea to combine different pieces into a formal/normal silhouette — getting rid of the dogma of the matching outfit, be it in colour, form or fabric. (Step 2) Considering a different approach: devising another way of looking at one’s wardrobe and its functions/meaning. (Step 3) Focusing on one particular/singular item (at random): for this collection the emphasis is on the skirt — a presentation of varying shapes and forms of this particular garment. (Step 4) Creating the ideal backdrop for the subject: within this collection, the skirt is essential; the other garments of the silhouette function as a surrounding for this central piece. The interaction between these two poles creates a certain tension. (Step 5) Not giving everything away at first sight: in order to accentuate this leftfield approach, all 12 silhouettes will at first be veiled and hidden away under identical black amorphous covers made of mohair, creating accidental forms in the process. When lifted, these covers reveal what has been kept from sight.

Olivier Theyskens autumn—winter 1999—00.

For the Winter of 1999-2000 he wanted an extremely refined collection, with the occasional discord. The unity of his monochrome silhouettes was broken by several mannequins on the runway, enfolded in impressive constructions of material. “L’antinomique de l’extrémisme”, as he puts it himself. 

Olivier Theyskens: I wanted this collection to be extreme. Monochrome black, with a touch of blue and white. At the same time there was the desire to go beyond the extreme, to show the absurd.

The hardest thing is to finish a collection, to see what you want to see. It’s like a Brazilian who has made his carnival costume: he’ll spend six months making it, the stress for him will be that everything has to be perfect at the moment of the carnival parade. 

The history of costumes is interesting especially for keeping your feet on the ground, and for knowing that you’re not doing anything extraordinary either. Just look at everything that has been done in the past, and you come right back down to earth. 

In twenty years’ time people will be able to see that my clothes were made in 1999, and they will probably be very difficult to wear.  

Olivier Theyskens autumn—winter 1998—99 in High Fashion, 1998.

In the summer of 1997, while still a third-year student at the Brussels Academy of La Cambre, Olivier Theyskens was singled out as the ‘fashion favourite’ by a leading Paris press agent. A few months later he abandoned the course and presented his first collection during the Paris prêt-à-porter week. The year was 1998. It immediately made him the first ex-student of La Cambre and the youngest designer with a show in Paris. Two ‘firsts’!

However, the first collection of womenswear was never sold. Not because it didn’t appeal to the public, or because it was deemed unwearable, but merely because the young designer didn’t want it. For him the show was a test case, a trial run as it were, aimed at establishing his reputation by demonstrating what he was capable of doing: everything.

It testified to his passion to pursue this profession. The collection was highly eclectic, ranging from plastic catsuits decorated with a depiction of the female circulatory system, to sumptuous ball gowns made from curtain material, trouser suits from kitchen towels or lace. You name it… the staging of this show was rather macabre. In a brightly lit, empty mansion house, pale models paraded disdainfully past the public, the overall effect being dramatically humorous.

Olivier Theyskens: Each bit of skin has an impact. Just sketching a neckline in a certain way is enough to give another sensation, another impression. The functional parts of our body are the hands and the head, that’s what most often tends to be exposed; and when you expose another part, you show something that isn’t essential for the function. You’re bang in the middle of the whole question of taboos, and so on. It’s always difficult to expose a mouth when you have just eaten something, for example. My desire is above all to make girls beautiful. To make them sexy is not my aim. Francine Pairon: The relation to prohibitions … you can’t get around it … The same hold for the register of seduction, sex… The clothed or naked body, covered/uncovered, OK … but the soul? The Japanese have a way of clothing bodies so as to nourish the soul.

Catwalk show by Maison Martin Margiela at the opening of the exhibition Fashion & Art 1960—1990, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, 1995.

The Van Heckes’ fashion shows were something special. They organized them in their own salons, at several galas, and even during the intermissions of blues concerts. Or at the gallery le Centaure, where during the opening night of a Kees van Dongen exhibition in 1927, they had their models parade among the invitees. More than sixty years later, in 1995, Maison Martin Margiela would do the same on the opening night of Fashion & Art in the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

Florence Müller: The performance/installation that Martin Margiela created at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels in 1995, one of the first exhibitions devoted to art and fashion, was very impressive. With a band of masked, non-professional models parading on a carpet of confetti throughout the opening evening, which was filmed and displayed in the exhibition space afterward as a “trace” of the event, he produced a spectacular effect with a minimum of financial outlay.

Catwalk show by Maison Martin Margiela at the opening of the exhibition Fashion & Art 1960—1990, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, 1995.

The Van Heckes’ fashion shows were something special. They organized them in their own salons, at several galas, and even during the intermissions of blues concerts. Or at the gallery le Centaure, where during the opening night of a Kees van Dongen exhibition in 1927, they had their models parade among the invitees. More than sixty years later, in 1995, Maison Martin Margiela would do the same on the opening night of Fashion & Art in the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. 

Florence Müller: The performance/installation that Martin Margiela created at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels in 1995, one of the first exhibitions devoted to art and fashion, was very impressive. With a band of masked, non-professional models parading on a carpet of confetti throughout the opening evening, which was filmed and displayed in the exhibition space afterward as a “trace” of the event, he produced a spectacular effect with a minimum of financial outlay.

Dirk Van Saene autumn—winter 1990—91.

He graduated from the Academy of Antwerp in 1981 and intrepidly opened his own boutique Beauties & Heroes, where he sold his own creations, until he snapped up almost all the prizes at the Golden Spindle contest. The next year, as one of the ‘Antwerp Six’, he proceeded to the British Designer Show in London, and in 1989 took part in their collective show. Later, in 1990-1991, they shared their showroom presentation in Paris. In March 1990 he organized his first show in Paris with the Dirk Van Saene collection.

As a radical aesthete, he is one of the rare designers who ‘attacks’ fashion strictly from tailoring, developing it into a profusion and rapid succession of consequences. One collection may hold a range of ideas which would suffice an entire design career — as he says himself, he gives it everything. Consequently he is sometimes called a man of more than nine lives, capricious, elusive…  

Dirk Van Saene approaches fashion ‘ad hoc’, adhering closely to its essence: couture. Moreover, he works with a drive that shrugs aside any intellectuel or ‘mythical’ approach. Should there be any imagery or dialectic in his collections, it will invariably be ironic or qualifying. At his first show in Paris for Winter 1990-1991, his staff wore T-shirt bearing his name, misspelt in different ways.

Olivier Theyskens autumn—winter 1998—99.

In the summer of 1997, while still a third-year student at the Brussels Academy of La Cambre, Olivier Theyskens was singled out as the ‘fashion favourite’ by a leading Paris press agent. A few months later he abandoned the course and presented his first collection during the Paris prêt-à-porter week. The year was 1998. It immediately made him the first ex-student of La Cambre and the youngest designer with a show in Paris. Two ‘firsts’!

However, the first collection of womenswear was never sold. Not because it didn’t appeal to the public, or because it was deemed unwearable, but merely because the young designer didn’t want it. For him the show was a test case, a trial run as it were, aimed at establishing his reputation by demonstrating what he was capable of doing: everything.

It testified to his passion to pursue this profession. The collection was highly eclectic, ranging from plastic catsuits decorated with a depiction of the female circulatory system, to sumptuous ball gowns made from curtain material, trouser suits from kitchen towels or lace. You name it... the staging of this show was rather macabre. In a brightly lit, empty mansion house, pale models paraded disdainfully past the public, the overall effect being dramatically humorous.

Olivier Theyskens: Each bit of skin has an impact. Just sketching a neckline in a certain way is enough to give another sensation, another impression. The functional parts of our body are the hands and the head, that’s what most often tends to be exposed; and when you expose another part, you show something that isn’t essential for the function. You’re bang in the middle of the whole question of taboos, and so on. It’s always difficult to expose a mouth when you have just eaten something, for example. My desire is above all to make girls beautiful. To make them sexy is not my aim. Francine Pairon: The relation to prohibitions … you can’t get around it … The same hold for the register of seduction, sex… The clothed or naked body, covered/uncovered, OK … but the soul? The Japanese have a way of clothing bodies so as to nourish the soul.

Ann Demeulemeester autumn—winter 1998—99.

How do you suggest movement? How do you un-balance a body? How do you ‘cut’ a garment that challenges gravity? These question result, with Ann Demeulemeester, in clothes that evoke the illusion of movement, even when the wearer is standing still. Trousers slip down a little, a cardigan gapes open, a draped dress exposes a shoulder: mainly impressions of a casualness that would never betray the complicated study which was often required to achieve it.

How can I make a collection from painter’s canvas? That was the basic question behind the Summer 1999 collection. This favourite material, which she had already used for invitations, displays and even tables, was ‘translated’ into an almost exclusively white collection. The shapes, developing further on those she started for the Winter 1998-99 collection, were conceived from what Ann Demeulemeester describes as ‘zero base’, the source of the ‘shape issue’; to set aside the repertoire of traditional patterns and to confront herself with the essence of a garment: a piece of material which you can wrap around yourself.

This ever-recurring issue, and the difficult task she has set herself, seem to be Ann Demeulemeester’s raison d’être. A ‘de-depicted’ world, which allows entirely new ideas to develop, in which a simple intervention is all-important, in which nothing disrupts the investigation of the body, or wearability. And a world in which the whole gamut of emotions evoked by a garment — from surrender to rejection, from security to alienation — can be meticulously constructed …

The cloth is holy.