Forty years after their international breakthrough, the Antwerp Fashion Museum is spotlighting the Antwerp Six in a brand-new exhibition. These six designers single-handedly put Antwerp—and, by extension, Belgium—on the fashion map. “Today, the concept of the ‘Antwerp Six’ has almost mythical status,” says Kaat Debo, director of the Antwerp fashion museum MoMu.
When the sliding doors to the brand-new exhibition at the Antwerp Fashion Museum open, visitors are immediately catapulted back to the 1970s.
Six young designers—Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, and Marina Yee—happened to be studying fashion at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, all at the same time.
Each of them is radically different, from Walter’s playful and colourful style to Ann’s dark restraint, from Dries’s focus on tailoring and rich prints to Dirk Bikkembergs’ sporty flair, and the multidisciplinary, artistic approach of Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee. And yet they find common ground. And even become close friends.
Belgium as a “Fashion No-man’s Land”
The six friends shared not only the same classrooms but also the same hunger to unleash their designs on the world. But when they graduated in the early 1980s, they were immediately confronted with a harsh reality.
“Belgium was a fashion no-man’s land at that time,” says Geert Bruloot, co-curator of the exhibition. “The Belgian textile industry was in crisis, and our country had no fashion identity of its own.” Or as MoMu director Kaat Debo puts it: “No distinct identity, unlike major fashion countries like France or Italy.”
But the Belgian government stepped in, trying to bring young designers and the textile industry closer together. “With initiatives like the Golden Spool competition and a campaign called ‘Fashion, this Is Belgian.’ Suddenly, avant-garde fashion is entering every living room, via primetime television programs,” says Debo. “With success: at home, the six designer friends are making a name for themselves; at that moment, they’re featured in every possible fashion magazine.”
The man who brought them to London
But Belgium is too small. “They have the ambition to become major international players. And so we had to go abroad,” says Geert Bruloot. “We” indeed, because Bruloot is the person responsible for that. In the early 1980s, together with his partner Eddy Michiels he founded avant-garde shoe store Coccodrillo in Antwerp.
“That’s where I tried to sell Dirk Bikkembergs’s shoes,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “They were already fantastic back then, but I just couldn’t sell them—unbelievable. So in 1986, I came up with the idea: ‘We have to take your shoes to the British Designer Show in London.’”
“Besides shoes, we thought it would be a good idea to show clothes as well. And I knew right away: all six designers had to come along.”
But they shouldn’t have expected a spontaneous invitation. “I had to argue hard to get us admitted to the show. People couldn’t believe that there could be good designers from Belgium. And six of them at once, no less.”
But Bruloot’s persuasiveness did not miss its mark. The designers loaded a van full of their designs and headed to London. Everyone except Ann Demeulemeester, who was pregnant at the time, but was represented by her designs. “We brought her collection of sunglasses,” says Bruloot, “I insisted on that.”
The Birth of the Antwerp Six
But even when they arrived there, they only received a lukewarm welcome. “They’d put us on the third floor, between the wedding dresses and the kinky latex. We were completely out of place there, because everything was happening on the two floors below us.”
Marina Yee, the “queen of collage,” stepped in. In her own unique style, she created an improvised flyer, which the Antwerp crew handed out downstairs. With success.
“On the second day, the world press was suddenly all over us. They’d heard about a group of striking designers from Antwerp, even though some of them didn’t even know Antwerp existed."
The Antwerp designers stood out with their unique style, which set them apart from mainstream fashion. “The success was instant from that moment on. From then on, people started calling them ‘the Antwerp Six.’ To be honest, also because they couldn’t pronounce their last names. But we immediately embraced that title as good publicity.”
A 3-Year-Old Myth with Lasting Consequences
Barely three years after the birth of the Antwerp Six, the members of the group—which was never really a group to begin with—went their separate ways. “In total, we went to the British Designer Show in London together five times,” says Bruloot. “After that, they showed their own collections in Paris.” “Yet the ‘Antwerp Six’ label has acquired a mythical status that lives on to this day,” emphasises Kaat Debo. That legacy isn’t always easy for the designers. “They’re still associated with it. It’s been both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, it brought international recognition; on the other, each of them wanted above all to build a career of their own,” says Bruloot.
In the exhibition, those personal journeys are beautifully brought to life. Each of the Six has their own installation, featuring highlights from their careers and iconic pieces from their bodies of work. “Their strength lies precisely in their individuality; they never functioned as a single brand,” says Debo.
“The Antwerp Six ” from March 28 through January 17, 2027, at the Antwerp Fashion Museum.