It’s almost time for MoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp to welcome you back inside and beyond. Remember those big renovation plans we told you about? The Antwerp fashion culture landmark has now kicked things off with a striking city-wide campaign, celebrating the official reopening of the museum on September 4-5 2021. ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’ is the name of the ambitious reopening programme as initiated by MoMu in collaboration with the city of Antwerp and VISITFLANDERS tourism institute. The programme runs from the first weekend of September 2021 till January 23 2022 and overarches a citywide festival offering expos, open-air projects and activities as well as city walks. To say we are excited is quite the understatement.

BEHIND THE 2.0(21)
Honing in on the global transitions and fault lines emerging within the fashion industry, the ‘2.0’ in ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’ stands for the all-over reset within fashion, heightened and fast-forwarded by the crisis that roiled around us all from last year until now. The programme focuses on human emotion, the ultimate wellspring for change. The title ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’ also contains three layers: becoming consciously aware of fashion as an industry in flux - from digital transformation and the new roles designers play as well as the increasing awareness about ecological sustainability. The title also nods to the concept of being fashion-savvy. A third layer refers to the role of Antwerp as a fashion metropolis. What MoMu wants to do is establish Antwerp's global status as fashion destination, but also as a city that continuously and critically dares to question what it’s doing on the fashion culture front.

MoMu Director and Chief Curator, Kaat Debo, says it best: “Our goal is to open up the renovated MoMu to the general public as a fashion hub and meeting place, and provide a unique and socially relevant view of fashion. The museum reopening is at the centre of the 'Fashion 2.021' project, and MoMu will curate a reopening programme focused on the global transitions in the fashion world of today and tomorrow. The title ‘Fashion/Conscious’ has many meanings for the general public. It can inspire everyone, from the fashion conscious right down to active aficionados. It also refers to sustainability and a ‘conscious’ approach to fashion, not only in ecological terms, but also in terms of the rapidly evolving, digitalising fashion industry.”


THE CAMPAIGN

Taking a closer look at the opening salvo, the photo campaign, the images (which will be visible all around Antwerp) hope to bring out that sense of instinctive emotion in passers-by, as well as provoke conversations. With input from designer greats like Raf Simons and Walter Van Beirendonck alongside younger cult faves like Glenn Martens, Rushemy Botter, Supriya Lele and Marine Serre, the photo campaign serves up a first taste of what to expect. Working with the aforementioned six designers, the team behind the campaign is an ensemble of names that fashion and photography buffs are sure to recognise. Leading the effort: creative director Isabella Burley (former Editor in Chief of Dazed & Confused, founder of Climax Books) in collaboration with photographer Hanna Moon (Arena Homme+, British Vogue, Stüssy, Supreme), stylist Agata Belcen (Senior Fashion Editor at Large of AnOther Magazine) and Belgian make-up visionary Inge Grognard.

To read the full story behind these images, go here.

THE PROGRAMME

‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp - Fashion/Conscious' envelops many activities, but centres around three major exhibitions running through the entire city:

1. 'E/MOTION - Fashion in Transition'

'E/MOTION - Fashion in Transition' is the museum’s official in-house reopening expo. Through themes such as ‘the female body, 9/11, identity and surveillance’, the exhibition is set to examine how fashion and clothing are both a bellwether and a weathervane for society’s general emotions and anxieties. It explores how fashion has given tangible form to political and social instability from the 90s to now and how the industry and its key players have continuously been in an organic push and pull when it comes to pivotal moments and upheavals. ‘E/MOTION - Fashion in Transition’ will tell this story through the lens and work of greats like Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang, Walter Van Beirendonck, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, John Galliano, Raf Simons, Simone Rocha, BOTTER, Pyer Moss, Minju Kim, Kenneth Ize, Supriya Lele, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cindy Sherman and many more. You’ll also be able to enrich your library with the ‘E/MOTION. Fashion in Transition’ book, available from September 4, 2021.

2. 'P.LACE.S - Looking Through Antwerp Lace'

The multi-location ‘P.LACE.S - Looking Through Antwerp Lace’ expo will offer you the chance to gain a different perspective on the historical craft of lace and its continued relevance and influence in today’s fashion, showing objects that have never been on display in Belgium before. The exhibition also recontextualises Antwerp’s underrepresented connection to the lace trade by taking up space in key locales around the city. At MoMu, ‘P.LACE.S’ will hone in on the fashionable aspects of lace through the cutting-edge designs of Iris van Herpen, Azzedine Alaïa and more. In the Plantin-Moretus Museum, which holds one of the oldest lace trade archives, and in the Snijders & Rockox House, the expo will present exquisite lace and modern fashion in unique historic interiors. SHOWstudio’s feted founder Nick Knight also crafted a poetic film for the St Charles Borromeo Church and Maagdenhuis. It’s time to look well and truly beyond the dowager aesthetic you may associate lace with!

3. 'Collection presentation - Fashion from the MoMu Collection'

One of the major chances within the museum is an all-new exhibition space located on the ground floor of the renewed MoMu building. There, you’ll find the expo ‘Fashion from the MoMu Collection’, which will feature a permanent, dynamic display spotlighting the paramount contributions of avant-garde Belgian (and international) designers. You’ll be able to get close to the silhouettes, accessories, historic clothing, imagery, paraphernalia and archive material from the over 35,000-piece MoMu collection. Where a lack of exhibition space limited the options to explore the museum's extensive archive in the past, the renovated museum will be able to grant the history of Belgian and international fashion pride of place at last (even during those moments when the temporary exhibitions are being constructed). The presentation will be updated every year to display as much of the MoMu collection as possible. In the first collection presentation, every visitor will be able to retrace the story and origins of avant-garde Belgian and international fashion through the hallowed work of Martin Margiela, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Raf Simons, Jurgi Persoons, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Rushemy Botter, A.F. Vandevorst, Bernhard Willhelm, Olivier Theyskens, Stephen Jones, Ann Salens, Minju Kim, Noir Kei Ninomiya, Haider Ackermann and many more - including designs by students from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp Fashion Department. The expo also will be accompanied by a new publication, available as from September 4 2021.

HOW TO PREPARE

The ultimate prep for this entire experience? Keeping close tabs on the MoMu Magazine, where MoMu will be sharing an ongoing interview series on Antwerp’s fashion identity with legendary greats and future-driven talent, written by KNOTORYUS’ and The Most podcast’s very own Dominique Nzeyimana. First up is a delightful read and insightful conversation with Walter Van Beirendonck about influence, identity and the notion of being established, which you can read right here.

The first weekend of September is looking blessed and highly favoured. We will see you there.


PRACTICAL

’Fashion 2.021 Antwerp - Fashion/Conscious’
September 4, 2021 - January 23, 2022

Pre-book your tickets here.

Find out all the details about the reopening programme by heading here. For the lowdown on the building’s renovation works, you can go right here. Discover the full fashion festival on mode2021antwerpen.be.