Collection presentation - Fashion from the MoMu Collection




The Collection presentation on the ground floor sheds light on avant-garde Belgian and international fashion, with an alternating presentation of silhouettes and archive material from the museum's permanent collection of more than 38,000 items.
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Description of the exhibition
The exhibition space on the ground floor presents ‘Fashion from the MoMu Collection’: a permanent display that sheds light on avant-garde Belgian (and international) fashion through silhouettes, imagery and archive material from over 38,000 pieces in the MoMu Collection. This gives visitors unlimited access to MoMu, even when the temporary exhibitions are being rebuilt. The collection presentation will rotate every year to display as much of the MoMu Collection as possible, from contemporary fashion to historical clothing, textiles and accessories.
Dig deeper
With the collection presentation, MoMu is offering a permanent place for every visitor that is dynamic, surprising and inspiring. Due to a lack of exhibition space in the past, the museum's extensive collection had limited exposure. Today, the renovated museum can give the history of Belgian and international fashion a permanent place. The MoMu Collection is continuously enriched as the gaps within the historical collection are filled and creations by young designers are added. Both keep the collection presentation a dynamic and surprising space.
Ceci n'est pas la mode belge
In the first collection presentation, visitors will discover the story and the origins of avant-garde Belgian and international fashion. The exhibition presents clothing and accessories, show invites, and archival footage. An introductory documentary takes a deeper look at the origins of the quality label ‘Belgian fashion’ from the rise of the Antwerp Six in the 1980s. The history of fashion in Belgium cannot be told without the work of the alumni from the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The collection presentation starts from a critical questioning of the contemporary meaning of the label ‘Antwerp’ or ‘Belgian’ fashion.
The world is in transition. As a consequence and extension of this, the MoMu Collection is a reflection of a society in flux. The collection presentation therefore does not tell a chronological story, but focuses on the themes and work of designers that are aesthetically and intrinsically connected to the central themes that are interwoven throughout: surrealism, craft, deconstructivism and a predilection for art, history and innovation. MoMu also collects work from Belgian and international designers who studied at other fashion schools or had no training at all. Thanks to the numerous exhibitions held in recent years, many avant-garde creations by international designers – with no direct link to Belgium or Antwerp – have also been included in the collection. This is what makes the MoMu Collection the unique, evolving one that it is – and will become.
From students to masters
A selection of the designers presented in the first collection presentation: Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Rushemy Botter, A.F.Vandevorst, Jurgi Persoons, Bernhard Willhelm, Olivier Theyskens, Stephen Jones, Ann Salens, Minju Kim, Yuima Nakazato, Noir Kei Ninomiya, Haider Ackermann, Veronique Branquinho and Patrick Van Ommeslaeghe. The work of students from the Fashion Department can also be admired. As the presentation changes every year, it will remain dynamic and the pieces on display can be rested after a period in the spotlight.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the book ‘Fashion. The MoMu Collection - Antwerp’ is published by Lannoo.