Last week, my lovely friend and co-blogger Elien (aka Little Louvain) invited me to come along to the presentation of a new exhibition in MoMu, Fashion Museum Antwerp. I was most excited and gladly accepted the invitation. Let me show you what a wonderful expo we got to see:

The exhibition -a partnership between MoMu and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp– was composed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of artist Rik Wouters this year. It exists of both paintings and other works of art by Rik Wouters, and pieces of artists and fashion designers who are still inspired by Rik Wouters on this very day.

The theme of the expo was sequential the main theme in the artwork of Rik Wouters: the space and feeling inside his house, with his wife Nel as its centerpiece. His goal to depict the search for ‘the good life’ is also important in the fashion world, where contemporary designers are going back to their roots and focus once again on craftsmanship, daily life and slow fashion. Designers such as Dirk Van Saene, Dries Van Noten, Bruno Pieters, Christian Wijnants, Walter Van Beirendonck, Veronique Branquinho, Martin Margiela, Jan-Jan Van Essche, BLESS and Bernhard Willhelm come into action against the fashion industry which requires so much of the artists ( two completely new collections every year, endless deadlines,…) that it’s got almost nothing to do with the creative process itself.

I really enjoyed this look on fashion. The focus was on comfortable yet beautiful clothing, which radiated the notion of shelter and safety. For example a pullover that looked like a rug, which reminded me of Native American garments. Another fun example was a dress made out of blanket and a pillow (this would be so much fun to wear, you could literary take a nap any time). But not only comfy clothing was in the picture, also extravagant suits with a whole interior (flowers included) on them from Walter Van Beirendonck, were displayed.

Over all, I really enjoyed the exhibition, as it was so carefully and thoughtfully put together. As you walk through the life of Rik Wouters and his evolution in his work, you also encounter the evolution in fashion of different designers (most of them from -for me at least- close to home) and you notice what an influence he had been for a lot of artists. And although I wished nothing less than having all this beautiful pieces of clothing hanging in my closet, I was most impressed by the wonderful work of Rik Wouters himself. The way he must have looked at life will definitely continue to have an influence on many. This has most successfully been shown by MoMu.

Have I made you all excited to visit the exhibition? You can visit the expo until 26/02/2017 and in partnership with Uniqlo, you can visit MoMu every first Sunday of the month for free!

Little Louvain also wrote a blogpost on this fantastic exhibition, read it via this link:

http://www.littlelouvain.com/exhibition-rik-wouters-momu-17-09-16-26-2-17/

What are your thoughts on slow fashion? And what’s your favourite piece of the expo? Let me know in the comments!