Is Antwerp Still Relevant in Today’s Fashion Landscape?

Antwerp, Belgium, has been rich for a long time. Pepper, silver and the silk trade made the city an economic powerhouse in the 16th century and it has been a nurturing place for art, culture and fashion ever since. Nowadays, it sits on the world’s largest diamond trade business and hosts Europe’s second-largest port. The city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts has been nurturing design talents such as the Antwerp Six, Martin Margiela, Haider Ackermann, Kris Van Assche, Glenn Martens, Demna Gvasalia and Jan-Jan Van Essche since the Eighties. They went on to run respectable and successful fashion businesses in the city or became creative directors at luxury houses, such as Hermès, Berluti, Dior and Balenciaga. Now a new generation of Belgian fashion brands has decided to set up their businesses in the city, with new approaches and different design ethos. “I wish I would have done it here, it would have been much easier,” said Martens, creative director of Y/Project, before he participated in a panel discussion during a series of talks organized last month by Flanders District of Creativity in Antwerp. Glenn Martens on the catwalk of Y/Project.  WWD/Shutterstock Martens moved to Paris upon graduation from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts after receiving

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