First of all we want to wish you a very happy and inspirational 2005,
with lots of love, health, friendship and exciting discoveries in
store.
For January we bring you the latest news about the most talented of
Belgium when it comes to fashion, art, shopping and generally having an
interesting time. Whether you like minimal or baroque, avantgarde or
sweetness & light, it’s all there for you to enjoy. If you have
any comments –be they positive or negative-, ideas or suggestions about
Belgian creative talent in any field imaginable, please let us know
at: mintred@pandora.be
Please check in regularly at www.mintred.be -and we hope to see you
again next month!
[expo]
Amour Toujours
February 7th- June 6th
The city of Hasselt, also known as the ‘city of taste’, is one of the
most enjoyable small towns in Belgium. One hours’ drive away from
Antwerp it boasts terrific shops selling designer fashion, interior
objects and gastronomic delights, you’ll find contemporary art museum
Z33 and a fashion museum (both often mentioned in these newsletters)
close to each other, everywhere you’re greeted by super
friendly inhabitants and Hasselt also has a tiny but imminently
enjoyable perfume museum, called Parfum-O-Theek.
Started by Colette Coenegrachts, the museum has a huge permanent collection of ancient and
new bottles, miniatures, posters and other scent-related goodies and
sometimes you can visit theme-related expositions. ‘Amour Toujours’ is
the next one, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Love, passion and
seduction have always played an important role when it comes to perfume
and its marketing and the Parfum-O-Theek shows you some of the
hightlights of the last couple of decades. Not to be missed.
Parfum-O-Theek
Hefveldstraat 26
3500 Hasselt
Belgium.
Opening hours:for individual visitors, every first Sunday of the month
from 2 PM till 5 PM. Groups of maximum 15 persons can call for a guided
tour.
Tel: 00-32-11-22.40.59 (after 6 PM)
or 00-32- 475-68.82.24.
Having a man draped around your shoulders wherever you go – it doesn’t
have to stay an unobtainable fantasy anymore with this scarf from
talented designer Christophe Coppens’ collection for men for next
summer. What do you mean for men? We want one too- now!
Belgian fashion designer Dirk Bikkembergs presented these high boots
with changeable height a couple of months ago already, but we love them
so much that we still want to show them to you with one foot already
firmly in spring (we wish!). You can adapt the boots to your own taste
by unzipping parts of it to a lower style (see photograph). The boots
exist in black, red and brown soft calf leather, or in a combination
of leather and jacquard fabric in tobacco brown.
Logical Reasoning, 1998, digital print, various dimensions
It is already three years since the Belgian artist Anne-Mie Van
Kerckhoven (AMVK, b. 1951) expressed the wish to assemble material from
her extensive HeadNurse Project– which she describes as a Sex and
Technology project – in a publication that puts the whole project into
perspective. The publication is the result of a research project that
has been carried out by Patrick Van Rossem for objectif_exhibitions
over the last two years. It also accompanies the exhibitions How
Reliable is the Brain?(NAK) and AMVK – EZFK(Kunsthalle Bern). By means
of installation shots, film stills and artistic images, the
HeadNurse-files present an overview of the project’s development from
1995 to 2004 and possibly beyond. They are interspersed with articles,
quotations and film scripts by AMVK, by theoretical reflections
published in the course of the HeadNurse activities.
The files should be seen as an in-depth questioning of the artistic
significance of AMVK’s visual idiom and the complexity of content her
media experiment involves. Throughout it the authors explore drawing
and painting, pictorial thinking, the digital, multimedia working
method and the spatial negotiation between image and support,
architecture and installation, viewer and work of art. The positioning
of the artistic identity throughout AMVK’s style, her fascination for
the image of woman and the many references to her own self – in image
and words – form an enduring outline of an artist’s position.
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven - The HeadNurse-filesis published by
objectif_exhibitions, Antwerpen (B), the NeuerAachenerKunstverein (D)
and the Kunsthalle Bern (CH). 176 pages, tri-lingual (Dutch, German,
English), full colour, hardcover edition. ISBN 9080849332
[event]
Fragma invited to AltaRomAltaModa Fashion Week 2005
After A.F. Vandevorst and Angelo Figus, the new Belgian prêt-à-porter
collection Fragma by Peter Ceursters (based in Antwerp) is invited to
participate at the prestigious AltaRomAltaModa Fashion Week 2005 which
will take place from January 29th until February 1st at the magnificent
Auditorium Parco della Musica, designed by Renzo Piano and the ancient
Tempio di Adriano, located in the heart of Rome’s historical centre.
During its last five editions AltaRoma has hosted more than 200
individual shows, which included 60 performances that have helped to
bring Rome to cutting-edge and experimental haute couture, as well as
creativity and a desire to work with innovative ideas, which are in
line with an artistic approach to fashion.
Fragma by Peter Ceursters will stage “Natascha Rostova’s First Ball”, a
fashion show inspired by the memorable scene from the movie “War &
Peace” based on the novel of Leo Tolstoy, with the new collection
Butterflies & Pleasures (spring-summer 05, men-women).
AltaRomAltaModa Fashion Week 2005 will take place from 29th January –
1st February 2005 at Tempio di Adriano – Auditorium Parco della Musica
in Rome.
After graduating from the fashion department of the Academy of Fine
Arts in Antwerp, Carolin Lerch devoted her attention to visual
communication of fashion like video presentations for other designers.
working two years as a production manager for the designer Bernhard
Willhelm, she decided to realize her personal idea of fashion and its
presentation. with the vision of a “de-accelerating” approach of visual
aesthetics and fashion, Carolin Lerch challenges conventional trends
and economic norms of continuous production. Under the label
pelican avenue she is producing her items in limited editions and
selling them online. She imbues modern timelessness in her collection
and presentation. For édition dame the designer restricts herself to a
simple geometric form, the ellipse, which functions more like a
decorative accessory than a specific piece of clothing. It is supposed
to be a collection of frames instead of total looks in order to
underline ones personality. Middle-aged Viennese women’s everyday lives
and their biographies have served as inspiration for the collection as
well as acting as models for the presentation and the staging.
pelican avenues édition dame uses a local context-based and
“de-accelerated” aesthetic that opposes modern structures and norms of
the western fashion industry.
The collection was presented with a video in PARK / Vienna on the 17th
of December 2004.
Vlaemsch ( ), a brand-new design label, has recently been established by
the Belgian designer Casimir, one of the leading Belgian designers of
his generation.
Vlaemsch ( ) stands for Flemish traditions humour, design, simplicity,
sensible, the surreal, no-nonsense, quality & solidityand combines
creativity with the highest level of quality: quality of design and
quality of product. Vlaemsch ( ) items vary from a white steel Birdhouse
with thermo-insulative coating and BootBag, a traditional Wellington
boot turned into a handbag, to the Paperclip Table, an innovative
detachable table in trespa with paperclips fixing for in- and outdoor
use. Unlike Casimir’s own label, Vlaemsch ( ) employs a team of
designers: three are Belgian, of whom one Flemish (Linde Hermans), one
French-speaking (Sylvain Willenz) and one Belgian-Italian (Saskia
Marcotti); one American (Leon Ransmeier) and one Frenchman (Augustin
Scott de Martinville). Despite this divergence of nationalities all
share Casimir’s sense of humour, and his determination to break away
from general, traditional styles. The team’s choice of materials and
technique is a surprise. Although Casimir’s own-label designs are
traditionally manufactured by craftsmen, all Vlaemsch ( ) designs are
made industrially. A fun Vlaemsch ( ) catalogue will be published twice a
year for loyal followers to coincide with the design fairs.
Not only has Belgium earned its place within the top of international
fashion designers with names like Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester
and Dirk Bikkembergs, it’s also working on the structural part of the
fashion world:
the Flanders Fashion Institute (FFI) organises a Master in Fashion
management course together with UAMS starting this year, so creative
designers and their companies will get the commercial direction they
need.
Belgian fashion fairs also grow and widen their scope: Brussels Fashion
Fairs (January 23th-25th) has added a trendy streetwear-oriented fair
called Poodle ànd a hip menswear fair named Frank to their usual
commercial fairs, where buyers and journalists can also follow trend
seminars, visit the Fashion Inspiration Lab (organised together with
Modo Bruxellae and Ad!dict Magazine), buy unusual products created by
young Belgian designers at the Fashion Supermarket and generally have a
great time. Meanwhile, in Antwerp preparations are being made for a
fashion fair debuting next September, with the top end of the Belgian
designers at its core. It’s still top secret though- well, at least it
was until now. To be continued very soon!
Venue BFF, Frank & Poodle:
Brussels Kart Expo
A. Gossetlaan 11
1702 Groot-Bijgaarden
Belgium.
Opening hours:
23rd and 24th January: from 9.30 A.M. till 6 P.M.
25th January : from 9.30 A.M. till 4 P.M.
If you like avantgarde designer fashion but don’t have the budget to
pay too much for your wardrobe, Antwerp’s Labels Inc could be the shop
for you. In this fashion heaven you’ll find recent collections and
accessories (not a ‘vintage’ piece in in sight!) by Belgian designers
such as Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs, Martin
Margiela, AF Vandervorst, Dirk Van Saene, Raf Simons, Véronique
Branquinho, Stephan Schneider and Bernhard Willhelm, but also by other
interesting names: Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe,
Prada, Marni…
Everything is in perfect condition -and a lot of the clothes are even
brand new, as Labels Inc also sells stocks from the designers mentioned
above. If you have beautiful recent designer clothes you want to sell,
Labels Inc can do that for you. A nice extra is that the shop often
showcases recent graduates from the fashion department of the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts, so if it’s a true pièce unique -created by a
future Belgian fashion superstar- you’re looking for, look no further !
Labels Inc
Aalmoezenierstraat 4
2000 Antwerp.
Tel. 00-32-3-232.60.56.
Open from Monday - Saturday from 11 AM till 6 PM.
Wednesday from 2 PM
till 6 PM.
After three collections in all kinds of black, designer Michaël
Verheyden presents a summer collection in white and sand. The leather
rope, a typical part of the evening bags, has been re-interpreted in
new forms and new ways of construction, which gives the bags a graphic
look. The ponyhair feels as soft as the colour palette and the chosen
shapes, while the total look still remains sharp and powerful.For
daytime,there are bags and shoppers in dry, cracked white leather and
shoulderbags in soft leather. A lightweight work- and travel range is
made of coarse woven hemp in sand. The colours are “ton sur ton” with
hard details like metal zippers and punk studs used to keep the bags
clean when you put them down on the floor.
New accessories are a belt with a stitched pattern of lines, which can
be worn and styled in different ways, make-up pockets and a lanyard.
Also available in black of course, for all you Goths out there.
