Some days ago the Fashion Department of The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp presented, in what turned to be one of the longest fashion shows ever – over 2 hours! – the student's works.
In one way the influence of the Academy's director, Walter Van Beirendonck, was quite evident, sometimes good and fun. Anyhow, I can only talk about a few collections of this show that caught my attention, thinking on the big challenge that means for the students to be in this academy.
This time the 4th year graduate's collections missed for moments what I would call "The antwerp 6 punch". Among them, Manon Kundig was maybe the most commented with a collection inspired by the bower birds, full of prints and with a strong mise-en-scene, and Marius Janusauskas "Sleeping beauties" who closed the whole show with classic and sweet dresses and subversive details such as destroyed fabrics with holes in them.
On the other hand, the third year students collections where super fun and interesting to appreciate with five nice proposals. The first of them was Jezzebelle Cormio's collection, a wave of fresh air among the other shows, with curvy girls and unexpected combination of fabrics, textures and colors in a perfect match. Felix Boehm with a chic view on Hawaii, Yong Soon Kwon and her typography based prints on the "Listen to me" collection, Polina Stepanova with her sexy use of knives on the dolly looks, and Lise Eerens with "Amor-Dolor" showing amazing maxi skirts.
Now, that the crazy days in Antwerp are over, we have to wait to the next year to see what the new generations will bring, I just can't wait!
