Belgian Fall/Winter 2010-2011

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Antwerp girl in LA

Sure, we have Anouk Lepere and even Hannelore Knuts, those ladies are superwomen for Belgian Fashion. No doubt about it. But there is now a girl who's living in Los Angeles, being a model and even released an album! She sings and plays the violin in a rocking way!



Astrid Nuyens, in America better known as Astrid Bryan, was born and raised in Belgium's city of fashion. She went to school in the citycenter, finished it and went to the 'land of dreams'. She started as a model and worked with many different designers. I'm sure we haven't heared the last of her...



For those who wants to listen to what she has to sing, you can download her album 'Taking Over' on Itunes...

Belgian designers eating the BIG APPLE!

Anna Heylen & Stephan Schneider (photo) will be together with Anke Loh, Indriz Jossa, Lenny Leleu, Marc-Philippe Coudreye and Peter Ceursters visiting America. This will not be a sightseeing trip, no-no, they will be showing their winter collection 2010-2011 on the catwalk of the New York Fashion Week this february!




Edith Vervliet (photo), head of the FFI (Flanders Fashion Institute), is the power behind this export trip. The designers will have a showroom in the Flanders House in NY. To be continued...

It's all about balance...

There are many ways to have a shoppingspree. You can have a bag carrier or a driver to take you from one place to another. But if you are in the supermarket, you'll never take 'a car-to-go'. Duval Guillaume, one of the best advertising agencies in Belgium, launched this ad for Alfa Romeo.





Go and see to find out in the 'Stadsfeestzaal' at the Meir/Hopland how it can stand up like this.

Belgian Designer on 'The Simpsons'

Ok, it's already 12 years ago, but still. The head of the Fashion Departement of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Walter Van Beirendonck, was the very first and only belgian designer whose clothes were shown on the longest Prime time series ever in history called "The Simpsons".



Back in 1997, Bono and his band were completely dressed by Mr Van Beirendonck. Maybe Bono's most known outfit ever on a worldtour. The 200th episode of Bart's family called 'Trash of the titans' tells the story of Homer and the Irish rockband. Here's the episode from 1998...

Window of the Month!

Starting this month we are launching a competition between all the shops in Antwerp! Exciting? Yes indeed. Twelve times a year we'll be making our choice of the most funny/creative/exciting window in Antwerp! We'll be looking at all the shops in town and put one favourite in the spothlight every month. The window of a store is (one of the) reason(s) you'll be entering it, so it's a very important part of the store. Some shops are just not trying anymore and that's sad. Ofcourse there are others who are just being fantastic! So keep on checking it out every month!



During the sales (in Belgium it's two times a year, one time in January, one in July) many windows are just looking depressing. Just an empty space and -50%. Not very exciting. We went searching for a funny one in these bargaintime and we smiled with this one of Cora Kemperman.



Comparing to all the other windows, this one has a certain style, but a simple one. Just two dolls dressed in black, with a 'Miss Sales-ribbon' on. There's a little tongue-in-cheek feeling because just last weekend the new Miss Belgium was crowned. You can ask yourself the question: Is the Miss Belgium-election a cheap competition? We know "The Window of the Month" certainly isn't...

Let's sale!

Antwerp is covered, like the rest of Europe, with pure white joy! During these cold wintertimes you can warm up with a search for the best sales in town. If you want to find some real good bargains, go to the Sint-Antoniusstraat 12. There you'll find the Walter Shop, the business of the most colorful designer of the Antwerp Six and head of the Fashiondepartement of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp: Walter Van Beirendonck. It's not just sales, but TOTAL sales due to enlargements. Be quick, because it will stop at the 25th of this month! Sales up to 75%!!!



The January-sales is a period when we never go and do some Personal Shopping, because you cannot give the exclusive personal service when people are standing in a queue to just get into the fittingrooms. No, we start our business again in February with a brand new and fresh item. You'll read more about it soon-soon-soon!

Famous Face-off

If there is one Antwerp Designer who's the most mysterious one of them all: than we're talking about Martin Margiela. As a former student of the Royal Academy of Antwerp in '79, he started in the '80s as a design assistent for Jean-Paul Gaultier in Paris. In 1988 he started his own label called 'Maison Martin Margiela', based in Paris.
The succes of this fabulous house you'll find in the simplicity: everyone is an important part in the proces of fashion: whether you're the head designer or the cleaning lady, they all contribute to the organisation of making clothes.


His global victory translates into many shops all over the world: Paris, Munich, New York, Beverly Hills, Milano, Moscow, Dubai, London and ofcourse Brussels, Belgium!

Famous wears famous


Michelle Obama wears his special shoes...

Jay Z even sings about the designer. The song "Run this Town" mentoins the House of Martin. Take a look at this clip and find out.



Paris Hilton wears his famous 'Incognito' sunglasses. A flat uniform lens runs over the front and sides of the face like black strip concealing the wearer's identity.
A step from Miss Hilton to Barbie is a very small one. For the 50th anniversary celebration of the doll (I'm talking about Barbie from Matel) several world famous designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier and Martin Margiela made unique outfits for the little mother of all dolls. Here's Martin's interpretation of Barbie in Margiela clothes...

Barbie in the famous 'Wig-Coat' of Maison Martin Margiela

October 2008

Starting in the mid-eighties, Martin wanted to stay out of the spotlights. Fashion itself is more important than the looks of the designer, he said. He could hide his face untill fall 2008. The New York Times revealed an old photo of 1997 of Mister Margiela. That was the end of the mystery...

Moreese.com

Maurice Engelen is not a new kid on the block. Crazy shows full of music and lights with a slide of (for some people) shocking material: that's what you can expect of this master in electronic music. For many years he performs with different people under the names of Praga Khan and Lords of Acids. You can find his music on sountracks of 'Basic Instinct' and 'Sliver'. This time he's back with a splendid new and fresh show with ... Michel Janssen!



In the summer of 2009 Maurice was visiting all kinds of festivals to find the right crew for his new show. In Michel he found a fantastic dancer and a great singer. So now he's playing throughout Flanders the leading roll in the new show 'Moreese.com'. Searching for your creativity and keeping the child within is what the show is all about.



Ofcourse the clothes are very important when you're on stage. Michel is totally dressed in 'Les Hommes' as you can see. Simple cut T-shirt and wide pants, even the belt is from this Belgian duo: Tom notte and Bart Vandebosch (both former students at the Royal Academy of Fashion, Antwerp)



Tickets To Win!

I'm very proud when I see him on stage, so i want to share it with you guys. One person can win two tickets for the show in Turnhout on Tuesday the 12th of January IF you can tell me which constellation Maurice and Michel share.
Send us the right answer to gids@tanguyottomer.com. The winner will be anounced on monday the 11th! GO-GO-GO!!

Visit the website for tourdata: Moreese.com

Tanguy Ottomer