Antwerp.Fashion Festival 2026

For the amount of times we've been in the Belgian city that has rewritten the history of fashion and that somehow still keeps on producing new batches of creatives that redefine the industry every year, it never feels that we’ve had enough of it. Because our visits are often around specific events, like the opening of a new exhibition at MoMu or the graduate show of the Academy, they tend to extend only to a couple of days, and we always feel we are leaving when we have just arrived; still a lot left to see. The idea of creating a new format of event, where those who visit, and locals, of course, manage to get a 360 look at the whole spectrum that the creative industry of the city extends to, is a proposal that benefits both parties: they get to show everything they have to offer, and we get to enjoy it in its full extension. 

Antwerp has always felt like an unmissable point of congregation for those who love and care about fashion outside the spectacle, and throughout the years we've been able to notice how this interest only seems to rise, translating into a tangible attention that has reached a new all-time high thanks to this brand-new fashion festival that, at the same time, has all the potential to be the stepping stone for all that's to come. 

We only need to look at the numbers: From June 4th to 7th, the city hosted the initiatives and projects of more than a hundred designers and creatives, received around fifty members of international press and buyers and welcomed more than 26,253 visitors. All for fashion. What a treat it is to know that many still care, genuinely and passionately, about this. Here, to show up is to care. A hundred events is enough space to create a good curation that blends the past and the present, the traditional and the modern, the biggest names and the ones who are on their way to being. The variety was present, all united by the unmistakable, impeccable Belgian taste.

One of the key milestones this fashion festival revolved around was celebrating a man who has become one of the biggest symbols of Belgian fashion all around the world. The retrospective and the look back to Walter Van Beirendonck's successful, honest and colourful career that started with The Antwerp Six exhibition recently inaugurated at MoMu found its peak with the anniversary show that commemorated 40 years of him “dreaming the world awake” and his first runway in the city where it all started. The show was divided by decades, with sections that went from his debut F/W 1986 collection BAD BABY BOYS to the most recent SCARECROW shown in Paris in January and the brand new S/S 2027 i knoW. 

The Boerentoren, Antwerp’s iconic skyscraper that was once the tallest building in Europe and the symbolic venue chosen by Walter for the occasion, became a parade, a joyful carousel of colours, of shapes, of the characters that have accompanied Walter throughout his life and a brief summary of how imagination can shape a whole career, minding the current world but always looking beyond into a more positive reality. Walter's experience has always been contagious; we had to just look around to see all the happy, starry-eyed faces in the audience, all dressed in Walter's extravagant garments, unafraid to show their true colours – never better said. Supporting him were hordes of fans and enthusiasts and, of course, the friends and family that have been with him during his career, from Inge Grognard to Ann Demeulemeester.

Also a friend, art entrepreneur Sofie van de Velde, inaugurated an exhibition dedicated to Walter during the festival at her very own gallery, which previously hosted a Marina Yee exhibit as well. Draw The World Awake, open until June 21, comprises 155 original design drawings by Walter, a graphic translation of what we just saw on the runway the previous night. Being able to recognise and pinpoint the different looks to how we remember them from Walter's unforgettable shows, this material closes the circle of creation and design: how a drawing becomes tangible. We heard the drawings are on sale at around 700 euros, not bad for history on paper. Walter closes the press release of his S/S 2027 show with the quote, "I know the mind can carry equal parts despair and hope. I know which one I will always choose." We can always count on you. Happy anniversary, Walter!

“In Belgium there is a fertile base for being creative. Here in Antwerp there is the time, the space and the rhythm to be creative (...). Belgian designers are hard-working and find inspiration in a lot of different places," said Julian Klausner, creative director of Dries Van Noten, during his conversation with Chioma Nnadi during the Fashion Talks event, and he is not wrong; in fact, he is living proof of that. We had the chance to discover in his own words how his relationship with the brand he started working in years ago and that he now carries developed; how smooth and full of respect the transition between Dries and him was; how the idea of embracing mistakes and accidents taught by his mentor is a mantra he still carries with him; and his admiration for colleagues like Christian Lacroix and Rick Owens. For being such a private designer and being so masterful in his work, listening to him sharing his stories was one of the highlights of the festival.

The fertility he mentioned when it comes to design in Belgium was also showcased by various creators who held their runway shows during the four-day event. Nadav Perlman https://www.instagram.com/nadavperlman/ held a performance runway show for his new collection, Roots, in the chapel of the Botanical Sanctuary. An esoteric and ritualist experience accompanied by live sound bath sounds and pieces that tell the story about the moment Perlman parted ways with his childhood home, this now becoming a sacred symbol of his core, a place to return to when the time is right. The garments all consisted of complex fabrics and materials that somehow recalled the ground, branches and nature, evoking a nostalgic but eerie and mystic feeling of comfort.

With the same mystical feeling, Marie Bernadette Woehrl presented her debut collection at ERCOLA, the Experimental Research Center of Liberal Arts, which serves also as her atelier. Under the name of Tir Na Nog, the mythological Land of The Youth, and in a courtyard that felt like a path to the forest in the middle of the city, Woehrl presented a whimsical collection of flowy fabrics, intertwined leathers and deep sensibility, blessed by the heavy rain that started falling as soon as the show started and that was magically over as soon as it was over. This unpaid actor was the perfect companion of a collection rooted in the freedom of the spirit and the connection with nature, a spiritual exercise of slow life and time and patience for creation. Seeing the audience of this show could also count as part of the experience, most of them in black, with distinctive personal styles, the kind of garment combinations and layering that is so Belgian, so Flemish.

Also a local, the young designer on everyone's radar, Julie Kegels, also took part in the festival, constructing After Work at Cour Gallery, which can be described as her very own apartment that, between her garments, furniture and decorative elements all chosen by her and important in her conceptual universe, presented to the public a comprehensive look at who she is as a designer. Featuring some of her most recognisable pieces, like the wood dress from her F/W 2025 collection or the makeup-stained bedsheets inspired by her shirts with the same print, Julie invited close collaborators and creatives important for her to insert their work in this “home” where every piece of decoration, every chair and even every wall socket had a history behind it.

Aside from MoMu, Antwerp has many more important museums of different kinds, with the jewel in the crown being the KMSKA, The Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum hosts a collection that spans art pieces from the past seven centuries but is always on the lookout to refresh its archives and bring new perspectives into its massive, stately exhibition rooms. That's why, in the context of the festival and being aware of how important the youth are to the preservation of arts and the creative spirit, the museum opens its doors for a collaboration between the art pieces that reside in it and a group of young designers, alumni of the Royal Academy, that will be open until November 8. With the task of coming up with a new piece that was inspired and could establish a dialogue with any painting or sculpture, the group created garments that do reflect the original art piece they took as reference but that also can stand as a new work of art on their own.

Now, exploring the opposite side of the coin, where fashion and its creators become an inspiration for art, the immersive installation The Triangle by Christophe Coppens and Javier Barcala from SUPERSAUCE https://www.instagram.com/supersauce.tv/ took the personal stories of three Belgian designers, Walter Van Beirendonck, Jan Jan Van Essche and Arte Antwerp's Bertony Da Silva, and transformed them into objects. Taking the first floor of The Boerentoren, under construction by the way, six big screens display the testimony of these three minds, just talking about their special interest and particular object or things they are strongly attached to: Walter's collection of toys, Jan Jan's love for the artisanal, and Bertony's hundred football T-shirts. In front, multiple pyramid-like structures work as cages for personal interpretations and renditions of these objects as understood by Coppens and Barcala, mixing their own new creations with the real belongings of the designers. An interesting exercise to discover what inspires the ones who inspire us.

The awaited show of the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was the pinnacle and the perfect closure for the festival. We will talk about it in detail in a separate article; however, the ending parade, the one where, at the end of the show, all of the students and the models take to the runway to celebrate the hard work being done and the success of the presentations, was marked by a vindicating atmosphere, enhanced by the multiple banners held by some of the students. The academy students are no strangers to voicing their beliefs, always including elements in this show's endings that let us see their positions, like the ever-present Palestinian flag, for example. However, this time felt like a 1:1 discomfort directed towards the higher-ups, whoever they may be. “Who can pay, can stay” and “No tuition rises.” We sort of understood where this was coming from. 

After that, we learnt something worth mentioning in an article that revolved around the importance of the creative industry, of the arts and of fashion, all intrinsically linked, nurtured and enriched by the multicultural aspect of this industry, where every conversation, no matter the context, is formed by individuals from all around the world. It turns out the ministry of education has signed a decree that cuts the funding for non-European students, causing them to face a tuition rise that spikes from €8,900 to €25,000 per year. The students explain it better themselves. “This decision is not only unfair and xenophobic, but it also threatens Antwerp’s positioning as an international fashion city that has taken decades to build (...). The international students are left wondering what their value and place are in a world that is constantly becoming more exclusive and racist.”

The past was bright; the present still is, and the future could be. The Belgian city has everything to continue being the fashion capital it has always been in a more widely recognised way than it has ever been. The Antwerp Fashion Festival has proved to be a unique and highly valuable initiative to promote, support and celebrate the talents that have not only been born here but that have also constructed their story in this city and in this country after arriving from anywhere else in the world. Everyone's hearts are in it, locals and foreigners, designers and press; every sector of the industry acknowledges the importance of everything that happened during these four happy fashion days. Let's hope the governments and those who should protect everyone's well-being reconsider their actions and realise how ALL the students are the backbone of the future.