Mode Museum by Matt Morley

For a fashion powerhouse of Antwerp’s repute, it is perhaps no surprise to find a museum dedicated to the industry here. Step inside this unassuming building between Nationalestraat and Drukkerijstraat however, and you are met by a striking modernist atrium leading into a Japanese concept store, the Fashion Museum of Antwerp (MoMu), a Fashion Academy, Flanders Fashion Institute, bookshop and brasserie.

Like so many things in Antwerp, outward appearances of understated simplicity often mask far greater depth and interest, for those prepared to scratch the surface. The MoMu collection began with that of the former Textile and Costume Museum: an assortment of clothing, lace, embroidery, fabrics and tools for artisanal textile processing, mostly from the Southern Netherlands. Added to that however, are creations acquired by MoMu over recent years from both emerging and established contemporary Belgian designers.

From 1977, the Textile and Costume Museum aimed at building an exciting and coherent collection by acquiring items of specific relevance to Belgian culture. Over the years, the collection was steadily expanded through purchases, items on loan and gifts, such as a collection of patterns from the prestigious fabric house of Valens.

The museum also possesses a sizeable collection of fashionable men’s and women’s clothing from the 18th to 20th-Centuries, regional attire, pieces of embroidery and so on. This distinctly Flemish identity makes MoMu utterly unique. In a sense, the museum’s holdings are a collective wardrobe of society, containing five centuries of history!

Contemporary Belgian designers meanwhile constitute a separate section of the museum that has been added to the collection over the last 30 years. Today, creations by the fashion pioneers of the 1980s who helped put Flanders on the international map are actively acquired by the museum: Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs, Raf Simons, Veronique Branquinho and many others.

Not content to settle for a classic approach to presenting this extensive clothing and textile collection to the world, MoMu has taken its own, typically idiosyncratic stance. Shows are arranged around the underlying production process behind each item, rather than their style or appearance.

An exhibition may therefore be based on a particular pattern or textile technique for example, rather than a fashion trend. Whilst undoubtedly challenging, the rewards for those prepared to devote a little extra time and energy to understanding a MoMu show, are considerably greater.

The subtext to this approach of course, is that clothes and textiles shed light on broader societal, political and cultural phenomenon occurring at a particular historical moment; they can, in other words, help contemporary observers better understand what was going on around the individuals who made, bought or wore the items in their original context.

MoMu organises two large thematic exhibitions per year, with a parallel program of workshops, tours, lectures and debates. On top of that, guest curators from a diverse range of outside organisations, such as the Fashion Department of the local university, are once a year given the opportunity to present a project on fashion photography, architecture, theatre, dance or video that relates to the MoMu collection in some way.

Egalitarian, considered and just a little bit quirky; the Mode Museum Antwerp is arguably a perfect reflection of Antwerp city itself. And we rather like it...