Bozar invited me -and a significant troop of fellow fashionistas- to the opening night of no less than 5 exhibitions at the same time: “La mémoire de l’intime – 150 Years Primadonna”, “Bellisima – The story of Five Dresses”, “The Belgians – An unexpected Fashion Story”, “The Honey Dress – A Film by Jean-Philippe Toussaint” and ” Jean-Philippe Toussaint – The Seasons”.

When the doors opened, the crowd shuffled into the many beautiful exhibition rooms of Bozar. Most of us where so busy presenting themselves to their entourage and finding the right attitude, that they didn’t hardly notice the live performance of Gregory Frateur, although he was standing on a prominent stage in the middle of the main hall. Accompanied by Bram Weytens, Gregory brought us “Norine Blues“, a song composed in the twenties by Paul Magritte, brother of famous Belgian painter René Magritte. He composed it for Madame Norine, who was a renowned Brussels-based fashion designer at that era. I was delighted to see, that, with me, there was a handful of attentive visitors enjoying this beautiful song, with good reason. 

After the performance, me and my husband dived into the waves of the main exhibition, “The Belgians”. Considering the busy working day in my wake and the buzzing crowd in my personal space, I figured out it be better to let myself float through the space simply following my basic instinct. This drove me straight towards the pieces that filled me with good memories:

Pierre Antoine Vettorello‘s dress from his Master Collection “Light me up”, 2010.

I’m in love with Pierre Antoines silhouettes from the moment of his Bachelor collection “Bonnie Magnum vs Samantha Beretta”, 2009. When he asked me to take care of the make-up and hairstyling for the shoots of his Master collection “Light me up” in 2010, I gladly joined the crew. I stand in awe for the fact that he is working on his own label. His unisex garments are designed and made in Belgium, exhibiting a fusion of poetry and drama.

Walter Van Beirendoncks monster shoes from his collection “Avatar”, autumn-Winter, 1997-98

Well, in my hometown Antwerp, we call him “De Walter”. I suppose, that sums up how influential our big daddy of fashion is. Walter Van Beirendoncks spectacular collections and shows have overwhelmed the international fashion crowd already since the beginning of his career in the late eighties. For me, his nineties collections have played a significant role in determining my teenage identity. I literaly feasted on the whole package of the magical shows, over the edge photoshoots, fairytales, the link with good music and, of course, my guide in life at that moment: Puk-Puk. He told me to have safe sex and to enjoy life and love as much as possible. Every collection, I went with my mom to his store -in the St-Antoniusstraat in Antwerp at that time- and persisted as long as needed about the beauty of it all, until I she bought me at least one item of it. I’m ever so grateful for these moments and still cherish every fiber of these garments, now carefully preserved in my “Walter” box. I was a teenager at that time, and wore Walters clothing for school. You can imagine the comments I got, since I was attending an “ordinary” highschool, nothing to do with fashion or art at all. One of the dresses I wore on a weekly base is this one (Avatar, winter ’97-’98):

The monstershoes displayed in the exhibition were also on my wishlist, but even to my ever so open-minded mummy, this was a bridge too far.

Three enormous photographs of the naked Vivienne Westwood by Juergen Teller.

I still don’t understand why the English never tried harder to get a queen like Miss Westwood on their throne. For me, she’s the leading lady of combining playful naughtiness and timeless glamour. Her audacity is unparalleled, proven once more by Juergen Tellers triptych from 2009. At that time the fashion designer was 68. In two of the images she reclines on an antique sofa which sets off her ivory white skin, and in one she sits legs akimbo, holding the camera with a smile and an exultant gaze.

And then….. me.

I always feel like an inquisitive child when visiting an exhibition, absorbing the words of the guide as a spongue and scanning the rooms as if I was on a hunt for hidden treasures. Born and raised as an Antwerp fashion addict, I have to love the work of our Antwerp Six beacon Dries Van Noten. But I must admit, that I never fully understood the driving forces behind his collections. The exhibition gave me more than a simple satisfaction of my hunger for new insights. Mr Van Noten doesn’t consider the artwork in the exhibition as a simple decoration, but combined different elements to give us a grasp on his creative process. The combination of these elements and how they are composed behold an unaffectedness that seems über logic to me. The way in which the designer spins his creative web in his mind ressembles the feeling I have when creating a make-up, hairstyling or styling look. One can be inspired by a simple fragment of an image, a person, music, an utterance or even a smell, as long as you know your classical backgrounds pretty well.

Most enjoyable was the fact, that we -and of course a lot of other pursuers of beauty- share the same fascinations. Dries Van Noten is inspired by punk and Vivienne Westwood (who should be queen of Europia if you ask me), animals,  Hitchcock, Jimi Hendrickx, The Piano, olfactoric pleasures, Spanish kitsch and dance-dance-dance! I will try to highlight only my top three eye-openers of this exhibition, in an attempt to tame my well-known prolixity.

1. Etuis de trichoptères by Hubert Duprat. What a marvel. Duprat collaborates with Caddisfly Larvae to build aquatic cocoons from gold, pearls and turquoise gemstones. Unbeleavably beautiful.
2. The scented walls by Sissel Tolaas. Sissel Tolaas is a Norwegian researcher, chemist and artist who is fascinated by the science and art of fragrances. She impregnated two walls with the scent of the earth and the smell of a damp garden. I didn’t want to leave this space, it was too addictive.
3. Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1930’s evening gown and coats. I’m addicted to glamour and evening wear, so, what can I say. Elsa Schiaparelli forms one of the foundations of the idea we have now of what glamour and refinement should be.

Here we are, a fine selection of bloggers, at the new photowall at the entrance of the MoMu. Of course, I had to look up my favourite exhibition in this museum ever, “Birds of Paradise”, all about feathers in fashion, arts and performance. I’m wearing a backpack by MCM, got it at de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam. My cardigan is Karen Millen. I’m chatting with Ianthe De boeck, ‎Social Media Officer at BOZAR and Camille Pollie, host of “Weekend Camille” at MNM radio and fellow make-up artist, two delightful ladies who definitely share my idea of enjoying beauty, having fun and delight in nibbling on a fine Boule de New York, offered to us after the guided tour.

The class of 2015 :-). The long black dress with high split is vintage Mango, glitter shoes by Tamaris and necklaces, of course, by Pieter Nulens.

After this event, my father asked me to go get a little electric heater at the site where we are building our new home, very nearby the Momu, and bring it towards our place in Deurne, where we live temporarily during the renovations. The result of this request was a rather funny appearance of me sitting on the tram wearing my glittershoes, my backpack, extremely long false lashes, yellow acryl nails and this dust-covered heater by my side. A lot of curious glances fell to me.