Bold Belgium
"Avant garde" doesn't even begin to describe some of the amazing creations that have come from the Belgian fashion capital of Antwerp over the years. Intelligent designers from the city successfully fuse fantasy with reality, and the "6+ Antwerp" exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery till June 28 celebrates such Belgian creators by presenting nearly 60 of their designs.
The title refers to the name The Antwerp Six, which was given to a new wave of Belgian designers who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The Antwerp Six is comprised of Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee. The "+" in the exhibition title refers to Martin Margiela, an honorable inductee into the group due to his invaluable contributions to fashion through experimentations with shapes and materials. As well, other alumni of the Antwerp scene — Bernhard Wilhelm, A.F. Vandervorst, Bruno Pieters and Kris Van Assche — have cemented Belgium's reputation as being the place that best explores and tears apart preconceived notions of fashion.
The exhibition was originally held in Brussels and is supervised in Tokyo by Yoko Takagi of Bunka Women's University. Along with select pieces from the designers' archives, "The Antwerp Six" also features a corner for new graduates of the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp, whose creations appear to come from a fantastic fashion dimension separate from our own. (Misha Janette)