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Pride & Fashion: How Fashion Students Are Challenging the Norms

Sketches and collages from sketchbook of fashion students at the Antwerp Fashion Academy
Malene Ahlert & Ezio Costa

If Pride is about anything, it is about challenging norms and opening up boundaries. In honour of this year’s Antwerp Pride, we sat down with two bachelor students of the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp who are doing just that. Malene Ahlert and Ezio Costa each offer a strikingly different, but equally ground-breaking vision on fashion and gender.

  • Collage
    Collage by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • On the left an sketch of an oversized yellow sweater. On the right: materials used for the sweater
    Design by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • On the left: model wearing beige coat. On the right: white coat with design on a mannequin doll
    Collage by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • On the left moodboard. On the right sketch of a blue dress and yellow top
    Collage by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • Asymetric blue collared jacket: Front, back and side view
    Designs by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • Intricate designed dress and pants
    Designs by Mahlene Alert
    6/8
    Malene Ahlert
  • 2 models, man and women posing in one yellow sweater
    Design by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert
  • Woman wearing white dress with a cape that serves as a flag
    Design by Malene Ahlert
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    Malene Ahlert

Malene wants her garments to be welcoming to literally any type of body, regardless of size or gender. Her work is highly critical of body normativity in the fashion world where tall thin bodies are still the norm. Despite increasing attention for body diversity, other body types remain a curiosity. Because making inclusive fashion design is not an easy feat, Malene’s design process is necessarily one of continuous experimentation.

I look for constructions that are universal enough to dress any body type.

Malene Ahlert, 3rd Bachelor student at Antwerp Fashion Department
Sketch by Malene Ahlert
Malene Ahlert
Title page of sketchbook of Malene Ahlert: 'My Type of Girl is Human' in letters cut out from magazines
Title page of sketchbook of Malene Ahlert
Malene Ahlert

The fact that Malene streetcasts her models underlines her deep commitment to making fashion that can genuinely dress everybody.

In a similar vein, working to dissolve the boundaries of masculinity, Ezio is on a quest to open up what it means to inhabit a male body in our society. Ezio looks for ways to include elements in his work that are traditionally considered off-limits for men’s fashion.

  • Detail of shoes and coats
    Designs by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Details of sleeves and shoes
    Designs by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • front, back and side view of a coat with fur sleeves
    Designs by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Collage
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Front, back and side view of a full look
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Front view of a shirt
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Collage of designs by Ezio Costa. Designs consist of a coat, bag and a hat
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Backside of a design
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa
  • Front, back and side view of a full look consisting of a jacket, trousers and a train
    Design by Ezio Costa
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    Ezio Costa

For my final bachelor’s collection, I delved deeper into masculinity itself, exploring different shades of masculine.

Ezio Costa, 3rd Bachelor student at Antwerp Fashion Department

His collection book reads as an exploration of manhood: from the hyper muscular nearly animalistic man to the thin hairless almost childlike man.

Sketch by Ezio Costa
Ezio Costa
Sketch by Ezio Costa
Ezio Costa

Both Ezio and Malene illustrate that something so intimate and yet so public as fashion is a critical playing field for pushing the limits on what it means to live in any kind of body in this world. An endeavour that underscores what Pride is all about.