Surely, by now, you’ve steamed your best virtual front row garments and selected the finest Stephen Jones-esque, quarantine-created headpiece your living room has ever seen because the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp Fashion Department’s WWWSHOWWW is near! Forging through in the age of physical distancing, 122 Bachelor students and 9 Masters will be taking the stage on a truly innovative dynamic, digital platform unfurling before our eyes on June 27 - a completely refreshed take on the time-honoured end-of-year Antwerp graduation show. Find out all you must know, fire up the group chat to coordinate looks - plus learn how KNOTORYUS’ very own Dominique Nzeyimana will be surprising you come show day. ‘Patiently waiting’? I don’t know the concept!


WWWHAT’S THE DAMAGE
The show is absolutely free to attend: if you’ve got a Wi-Fi connection, you’re in through the front door. No reservations needed, this tech-meets-tradition extravaganza is open to all.


WWWHEN AND WWWHERE
The show starts on Saturday, June 27 at 8 PM (CET). Head to www.showww.be and register your email address to be notified when the platform goes live. Use hashtag #wwwshowww to see what others are talking and stanning about.


WWWHO’S GRADUATING

The class of 2020 lifting off into fashion orbit come June 27 consists of Florentina Leitner, Nico Verhaegen, Silvia Rognoni, Karolina Widecka, Marie Martens, Sabrina Pfattner, Annemarie Saric, Julia Ballardt and Isabelle Lempik. These Masters’ moods and inspirations - as shared on the IG account you should have been following already @antwerpfashionmasters - range from Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ and optical illusions (Florentina Leitner), Fassbinder’s ‘The Marriage of Maria Braun’ (Silvia Rognoni), occultism and UFO sightings (Karolina Widecka), Edie Beale and Lee Radzwill’s world of Capote-era glamour (Marie Martens), lace knitting techniques (Sabrina Pfattner), cultural and fokloric dress (Isabelle Lempik) and so much more. Expect the unexpected and you’ll be right on the money.

WWWHAT TO EXPECT
The Academy was already working on the next wave in student fashion presentation before COVID struck, so the faculty wasted no time in meeting the moment when it came. The WWWSHOWWW platform is a collab between the Fashion Department and creative agency Random Studio, who took on the challenge of providing an online environment for these physical student designs to be transmogrified into a 360 story for all the world to savour. The show is set to span an entire evening worth of diverging events - including a cryptically-named ‘catwalk of computer files’. You must allow for some surprises to enrapture you, but we have it on first-hand authority it will be well worth it: KNOTORYUS’ Dominique Nzeyimana was hand-picked by Walter Van Beirendonck and the Antwerp Fashion Department to participate in a most exciting way (which previously involved the most platinum people being zoomed into her loft). A first preview involving stellar Academy alumni graduates such as Dirk Bikkembergs, Jurgi Persoons, Kris Van Assche, Minju Kim and many more was just shared and you’ll see more of that on the platform, as these legends answer questions crafted by Dominique! Further specific details of what’s to come are being kept under wraps still but rest assured it will be a gag and a half.

WWWHO IS IN
A compendium of industry insider stars and living legends has rallied to provide the students, who are facing these uncertain times head-on, with the support of globally celebrated icons and notable alumni. Globally feted collaborators Willy Vanderperre and Olivier Rizzo are first to be named, conceptualizing and creating a shoot for the (new) ages. Vanderperre and Rizzo called on their personal relationships with Belgian and international supermodels (including Anok Yai, Mica Argañaraz, Kiki Willems, Kaia Gerber, Rianne Van Rompaey, Craig Shimirimana, Sora Choi, Daan Duez, Maoro Bultheel and Ilona Desmet), and their agencies as well as their casting directors all lent their voluntary support to the show. The looks were all shot by Willy Vanderperre using several techniques via video call. The result converges in 9 striking posters of beauty pixellated, graphically perfected by the hand of master Paul Boudens. Reflecting on the process, Olivier Rizzo shared: “Our focal point was the celebration of creativity and young talent. The models themselves are also very connected to the arts in their personal life, so their honest reaction to the clothing and overall concept was overwhelmingly positive and sparked their imagination for us to capture.”

WWWHAT DOES WALTER HAVE TO SAY
In the words of the Head Master - who leads by example and knows how to embrace adversity in order to push forward - Walter Van Beirendonck: “The starting point of WWWSHOWWW was to give current students the same opportunities and visibility as their predecessors but also to really celebrate their work. Willy and Olivier were very enthusiastic to embrace creativity in these difficult times. WWWSHOWWW will be a completely new experience, but it’s that difference that makes it exciting and fantastical. It is a next step that we as a school were thinking about even before the COVID-19 crisis and which has been accelerated and digitally evolved by the virus.”

A champion for his students, forever. Walter Van Beirendonck is currently also gearing up to debut his SS21 collection at the official, first-ever digital Paris Fashion Week very soon (more on that later).

The future is now!

WWWSHOWWW - PRACTICAL
Saturday June 27, 2020
8PM CET
No tickets or reservation needed
www.showww.be / #wwwshowww
Enter your email via www.showww.be to be notified when the platform goes live.


Header image credits: Annemarie Saric, Model: Anok Yai @NEXT, Photography: Willy Vanderperre, Styling: Olivier Rizzo, Casting: Samuel Ellis Scheinman for DMCASTING, Graphic design: Paul Boudens, Postproduction: Stéphane Virlogeux / Florentina Leitner, Model: Kaia Gerber @DNA Models, Photography: Willy Vanderperre, Styling: Olivier Rizzo, Casting: Samuel Ellis Scheinman for DMCASTING, Graphic design: Paul Boudens, Postproduction: Stéphane Virlogeux / Isabelle Lempik, Model: Ilona Desmet @GIRL MGNT, Photography: Willy Vanderperre, Styling: Olivier Rizzo, Casting: Samuel Ellis Scheinman for DMCASTING, Graphic design: Paul Boudens, Postproduction: Stéphane Virlogeux