In their Flemish hometown, the Antwerp Six are so famous, their images appear on postcards sold in antique stores alongside aerial shots of the UNESCO-listed Cathedral of Our Lady. Outside of the region, the renowned group of Belgian designers comprised of Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, and the late Marina Yee are known for shaping the fashion industry\u2019s relationship with Belgium. A new retrospective at MoMu, the Fashion Museum Antwerp, The Antwerp Six, explores their stories\u2014and their legacy.<\/p>\n
Opening March 28, the show arrives 40 years after the group received its myth-making moniker. It\u2019s the first major exhibition to consider the intersection, enduring resonance, and individual trajectories of these unique designers: graduates of the fashion course at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp who, together with Martin Margiela (a classmate of Van Beirendonck and a year above the rest), managed to disrupt the Paris and Milan fashion scenes with their own sartorial radicalism.<\/p>\n
Walter Van Beirendonck, WINK WITH STARRY EYES, Spring\/Summer 2026 <\/p>\n
\u00a9 Photo by Alex Conu<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the outset, it was important not to present the Antwerp Six as a unified movement or style, but as six radically individual practices that intersected at a particular moment in time,\u201d explains Geert Bruloot, who curated the exhibition together with MoMu\u2019s director Kaat Debo and curator Romy Cockx. \u201cThe key story was not one of collective identity, but of difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruloot was introduced to Van Saene in 1983, when his footwear store, Coccodrillo\u2014famed for stocking Margiela\u2019s Tabi silhouette before any other shop\u2014was located in the same mall as the designer\u2019s other boutique, Beauties & Heroes. By 1985, Bruloot was accompanying the six on a visit to Japan. The following year, they packed up their collections in a van and headed to London for the Fashion Designer Show, where they would end up on the tepid second floor of the city\u2019s Olympia center. The crew quickly devised a flyer campaign that advertised \u201cSix Designers From Antwerp,\u201d and by the trip\u2019s end, Barneys New York was placing orders and the name was coined.<\/p>\n
The Antwerp Six, 1987, published in WWD<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Photo by Philippe Costes<\/p>\n
At MoMu, a series of floor-to-ceiling portraits shot by Patrick Robyn in 1983 announce the new show on the museum\u2019s upper level. Inside are roughly 100 looks, while the designers\u2019 impact is further underscored by rare ephemera like drawings, invitations, photographs, and personal documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey opened their archives, selected key pieces, and provided context,\u201d Debo says. \u201cOur focus was not on presenting \u2018greatest hits\u2019, but on processes, beginnings, and moments of transition. We were particularly interested in materials that could reveal how ideas developed over time and how different aspects of the designers\u2019 practices were interconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marina Yee, Autumn\/Winter 2025 – 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Photo: Rafael Adriaennsens<\/p>\n
While the iconic name and their shared experiences means the designers are routinely referenced together, the reality is somewhat different. Until May 2024\u2014when they gathered in the museum\u2019s auditorium to discuss this show\u2014the last time they\u2019d been together was a decade prior, for the 50th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts\u2019 fashion department.<\/p>\n
Honoring their singularities and contrasting aesthetic perspectives was paramount, says Bruloot, and the museum\u2019s main gallery has subsequently been staged so each designer gets a \u201cclearly defined space with its own logic, rhythm, and aesthetic language. The Antwerp Six were never a collective, so it was important that the exhibition does not impose that structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Photography by Patrick Robyn<\/p>\n
At its core, The Antwerp Six is about what the group\u2019s accomplishments meant for the city as a fashion destination; it also surveys the ways institutions can help develop talent. But it is, above all, a retrospective of six varied careers. \u201cWhat continues to resonate is not a recognizable style, but a mind-set,\u201d Debo says. \u201cCreative autonomy, intellectual ambition, and the courage to operate independently. Their legacy is proof that it was possible to invent your own rules and succeed internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Antwerp Six runs at MoMu Antwerp from March 28, 2026 through January 17, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In their Flemish hometown, the Antwerp Six are so famous, their images appear on postcards sold in antique…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,6126,898,6127],"class_list":["post-8784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-antwerp","tag-antwerp","tag-art-design","tag-culture","tag-homepage"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116303321066830604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}