Linda Loppa - Modenatie
20 Years Ago
"Twenty Years ago top designers mostly worked for people like Kenzo or Yves Saint Laurent. But a real Belgian fashion industry just did not exist when I graduated from the Academy in 1971", agrees Linda Loppa, driving force behind the Antwerp Academy of Fashion and the Flemish Fashion Institute. --Manuel SantelicesModenatie
Fashion in Antwerp has a new name: the ModeNatie. A building that will host a fashion museum, the fashion department of the famous Antwerp Academy, the Flanders Fashion Institute and more. A report from the inside by Veerle Windels.
In the mid-nineties a few people in Antwerp had a dream. They wanted Antwerp to witness the international emanation of Belgian fashion and dreamed of a fashion temple which all kind of players would call their own. The Mode Antwerpen was created and soon received the title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders in 1997 – a very prestigious title, by the way. Mode Antwerpen evolved into Flanders Fashion Institute (FFI), but the aim stayed the same: promoting Belgian fashion. It seemed logical to search for a place that could host not only FFI but also the fashion department of the Antwerp Academy (where The Six of Antwerp graduated) and a completely new fashion museum. Today, that place has a name: the ModeNatie. The huge old building, situated on the corner of Nationalestraat and Drukkerijstraat in the centre of Antwerp, has a fashion tradition: in the nineteenth century, the ground floor was rented to New England, a renowned fashion house at that time. Latterly it has stood empty and forgotten. But not by the FFI crowd: for five years they talked to people from the City and province of Antwerp, politicians from the Flemish community, fashion people from Textile Flanders and private partners. All of them joined in and decided to come up with money. A lot of money.
The renovation of the building was in the hands of Belgian architect Marie- José Van Hee. She came up with a wonderful plan, creating a huge staircase and opening up the space inside so that the sky could be seen from the ground floor. Her design embraced all the different elements within a very linear and modern concept – full of warm wood and white walls. Ever heard of FFI? Maybe not. The Flanders Fashion Institute regularly organises fashion events in Antwerp. Like Vitrine, the one that brought young designers into the windows of famous shops and stores in town. The fashion crowd knows the Paris Guide - a little red guide to Belgian fashion in Paris and Antwerp - which is distributed by the FFI during Paris fashion week. And, of course, there’s the magazine that anyone can buy.
People in Antwerp had a dream. They wanted to witness the international emanation of Belgian fashion... the Mode Antwerpen was created
(inside a picture...) The MoMu opens September 21. Nationalestraat 28, 2000 Antwerp. 03/470.27.70 or www.momu.be. Entrance: €5. The ModeNatie also hosts Brasserie National and the bookshop Copyright. The MoMu opens September 21. Nationalestraat 28, 2000 Antwerp. 03/470.27.70 or www.momu.be. Entrance: €5. The ModeNatie also hosts Brasserie National and the bookshop Copyright.
Guest curator of magazine Awas Belgian designer Dirk Van Saene, Bwas curated by German (but Belgian trained) designer Bernhard Willhelm and Chad the British Hussein Chalayan as guest curator. This fashion magazine is different from all others. It shows you Belgian fashion like you’ve never seen it before. Lots of pictures, and a straight-to-the-point interpretation by international fashion writers. MoMu is definitely a reason to visit the ModeNatie. This fashion museum on the second floor of the ModeNatie originates from the Textile and Costume Museum centuries of textiles. MoMu will stick to the four principles of acquiring, preserving, researching and presenting – but all of these will be given a creative and dynamic input by director Linda Loppa and her team. (She’s also chief of the fashion department of the Academy). For a few seasons now, Loppa has been buying the work of contemporary Belgian designers and she will definitely exhibit that archive. The MoMu opens on 21 September with the exhibition “Backstage/Achter de schermen/Les Coulisses”, which will immediately confront us with old and new.
A selection of the collection will be presented, together with a behind-thescenes story of the museum and its exhibition policy. “It’s all so exciting,” says museum director Loppa, “We’ve worked and brainstormed for five years, and now the dream has come true.” One floor up will be home to the fashion students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1663 by painter David Teniers, taking the academies of Rome and Paris as an example. That makes this academy Vrieselhof in Oelegem (near Antwerp), which carries an archive of over five centuries of textiles. MoMu will stick to the four principles of acquiring, preserving, researching and presenting – but all of these will be given a creative and dynamic input by director Linda Loppa and her team. (She’s also chief of thefashion department of the Academy). For a few seasons now, Loppa has been buying the work of contemporary Belgian designers and she will definitely exhibit that archive.
The MoMu opens on 21 September with the exhibition “Backstage/Achter de schermen/Les Coulisses”, which will immediately confront us with old and new. A selection of the collection will be presented, together with a behind-thescenes story of the museum and its exhibition policy. “It’s all so exciting,” says museum director Loppa, “We’ve worked and brainstormed for five years, and now the dream has come true.” One floor up will be home to the fashion students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1663 by painter David Teniers, taking the academies of Rome and Paris as an example. That makes this academy the oldest of the Netherlands (as this region was then called). Years on end, the fine arts were taught here. And in the fifties one Mary Prijot studied painting here.
In the early sixties she started working here and soon gave the fashion department its international appeal. She set very high standards, both for fashion drawing and, later, for fashion design. Both Mary Prijot and Marthe Van Leemput were teachers here, when the Antwerp Six graduated at the beginning of the eighties. Later on, Linda Loppa added flavour to the teachers’ team. She’s stimulating the department in an exceptional way. You might never have heard of her, but maybe you know the designs of Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs, Martin Margiela and Dries Van Noten, who all graduated from this school. Needless to say, a younger generation has graduated in the meantime, and is making waves in Paris. D
o the names Veronique Branquinho, AF Vandevorst and Jurgi Persoons ring a bell? They were all present at the preview of the ModeNatie at the end of May. The MoMu and the fashion department hadn’t moved into the building, but visitors could witness the architecture in all its grandeur. Architect Marie-José van Hee was extremely excited, as were the designers who, for the first time, got inside the fashion temple. Their temple. The FFI had asked some thirty designers to come up with an installation, scattered all over the ModeNatie. Designer Ann Demeulemeester chose the library, where she didn’t show clothes but another creation of hers, a white table. Jurgi Persoons opted for the main floor, the forum, where he hung a photograph on the wall, showing nothing but clothes hangers. Creative and different indeed, but so is Belgian fashion.