‘It was not like a pop group coming together and singing the same song. All six of them had different solo careers in mind,’ notes Geert Bruloot, one of three curators working on a new exhibition, opening at MoMu in Antwerp at the end of March, which will celebrate 40 years of the sextet of Belgian designers known as the Antwerp Six.
Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee all trained. at the fashion department of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in the early 1980s. Their differing approaches, aesthetics and career paths, as well their unique legacy as a group contextualised within a broader fashion history framework, makes for a fascinating, complicated and ultimately visually arresting tale.
The Antwerp Six at MoMu Antwerp
The Six Belgian Designers’ A/W 1988-89 London invitation. It is said the group was labelled the Antwerp Six as British and US buyers struggled to pronounce the designers’ names
It’s a narrative that MoMu’s director Kaat Debo (and fellow curator alongside Romy Cockx) had wanted to unravel at the museum for some time; the Six and Martin Margiela, who graduated from the Royal Academy around the same time, put Belgian fashion on the international map. Debo says she is particularly grateful that all six designers gave the exhibition proposal their blessing while agreeing to in-depth interviews and offering access to their individual archives. Visitors can expect to see around 80 silhouettes in the show, alongside personal objects, sketches, ephemera and video; each designer has been involved in the way their own work will be presented. It is a major milestone: in the four decades since the group was given the Antwerp Six moniker, this is the first major survey of their work collectively
‘As the designers often say, the Antwerp Six is both a blessing and a curse,’ notes Debo. ‘They realise how influential the name and concept is, but it can be frustrating because, for 40 years, in every interview, there is always at least one question about the Antwerp Six – and it was never a brand. They never collaborated or made collections or campaigns together.’
‘Marie by Marina Yee’ S/S 1988 invitation, with a photograph by Andrew MacPherson
Bruloot, who, with partner Eddy Michiels, opened Antwerp’s avant-garde shoe boutique Coccodrillo (the first to sell Margiela’s ‘Tabi’ split-toe boot) in 1983, as well as Louis, a store dedicated to Belgian fashion, in 1986, says the myth of the Six is particularly extraordinary given that after they left the Royal Academy, they were technically only the Six for around three years before establishing their own distinct careers.
The story begins with a journey that the designers took in a rented van to London to show their work at the 1986 British Designer Show at Olympia (only Demeulemeester did not travel; she was pregnant at the time). Instigated by Bruloot, it is now considered legendary: with their somewhat complicated- sounding names and then-radical designs, the group made flyers – Bruloot is convinced this was Yee’s idea – that read ‘Come See The Six Belgian Designers’ to encourage attention. It worked. Orders from Barney’s New York – the store every designer wanted to sell to at the time – were placed, and their group identity cemented, even if the details of who christened them the Antwerp Six remain sketchy.
Walter Van Beirendonck S/S 2008 ‘Sexclown’ invitation, with graphic design by Van Beirendonck and Paul Boudens. The collection was inspired by sculptures and masks of the Bozo people of Mali
One of the first exercises in bringing this exhibition to life was to assemble the designers together – a relatively rare occurrence – to explore their personal recollections and histories, none of which neatly aligned. ‘It had been quite a long time since they had all seen each other, but you could see the six students sitting at the table, teasing each other and sharing memories,’ says Debo. It seems particularly poignant given that, in November last year, Yee lost her battle with cancer.
Her enthusiasm for the exhibition remained undimmed, says Bruloot. ‘I had been working on it with her these past few years, even until a few days before she died. She was an extraordinary person, a very creative person. She could make fashion out of anything.’ An early adopter of upcycling and with a strong personal style, which is often considered to have inspired early Margiela collections, Yee’s career output ranged from theatre costume design to painting and collage alongside her sustainable ready-to-wear label, MY Collection, launched in 2021.
Ann Demeulemeester S/S 1991 invitation, designed by Demeulemeester and her partner Patrick Robyn
Despite their varying design vocabularies and career twists and turns – whether it was Bikkembergs’ canny coupling of fashion and sportswear, Van Saene’s experiments with art and sculpture, Demeulemeester’s darkly poetic aesthetic, Van Noten’s unique understanding of print and colour, or Van Beirendonck’s disruptively playful and political runway collections – the group’s legacy of individualism is in stark contrast to the current culture of high fashion as mainstream entertainment. Regardless of whether they still own their namesake brands, Bruloot says ‘they didn’t want to be part of the fashion jet set. Or to be linked to a big house. They wanted to remain free.’
The exhibition will consider how much fashion has changed over the past 40 years, as well as offering insights into the various factors that set the stage for the Six to flourish. The early 1980s were a particularly inspiring period in fashion internationally, including the rise of avant-garde Japanese design, such as Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons – Bruloot distinctly recalls members of the group driving to Paris to visit the brand’s early stores – alongside a thriving fashion scene in London, led by the likes of Vivienne Westwood and BodyMap.
Dirk Bikkembergs A/W 2004-05 invitation, with a photograph by Luc Willame. A pioneer of the sport fashion fusion philosophy, Bikkembergs was the first fashion designer to present runway shows in the football stadiums of Milan and Barcelona
Meanwhile, a growing community in Antwerp, centred around the likes of underground disco Cinderella’s Ballroom, stores including Van Saene’s Beauties & Heroes, and art galleries such as Wide White Space, reflected a shifting mindset among young creatives. Running in tandem were a series of government initiatives, including television campaigns, such as ‘Fashion, this is Belgium’; the Golden Spindle contest for emerging designers, judged by the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier; and funding that allowed members of the Six to visit Tokyo. ‘I think it was there they learned that fashion is more than making clothes,’ says Debo. ‘They learned that you have to create a world. And you have to present your world. If there’s one thing that binds all six of them, it’s that they have such strong signatures, which originated from gut feeling, not commercial strategies.’
Debo hopes the exhibition will be a catalyst to think about how to nurture new talent and consider what fashion is now. ‘Is it sort of marketing? Do we sell a name, a logo? What is the value of it?’ she says. ‘The Six did their own thing alongside these huge fashion groups of the 1990s. They showed how creative people can lift the reputation of an entire city and present it as a place for experimentation, innovation and connection. They are respected as artists, as creatives, but also as people who did it their own way.’
Dries Van Noten A/W88-89 invitation, with a photograph by Patrick Robyn and graphic design by Anne Kurris
‘The Antwerp Six’ is on show from 28 March 2026- 17 January 2027 at MoMu, Antwerp, momu.be
A version of this story appears in the March 2026 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today