Antwerp’s Antwerp Six Return Home in a MoMu Exhibition Marking 40 Years
A new exhibition at MoMu in Antwerp looks back at the moment six Royal Academy of Fine Arts graduates became an international fashion reference point — and it does so by emphasizing how little they resembled one another. The presentation marks the 40th anniversary of their 1986 appearance on the London fashion scene, the event that helped fix the name “Antwerp Six” in fashion history.
The designers — Marina Yee, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Dirk Van Saene — are often grouped together as a single generation, but the exhibition argues for a more nuanced reading. Their careers began in the same city and at roughly the same time, yet their ambitions quickly diverged. Bikkembergs pursued a hyper-masculine silhouette. Demeulemeester developed a vision of femininity that could comfortably absorb masculine tailoring. Van Beirendonck moved toward bold, club-oriented menswear.
Kaat Debo, director of MoMu and co-curator of the exhibition with Geert Bruloot, said the label has always carried contradictions. “The name is a paradox. They never functioned as a collective,” she said. “Some of them still describe that label as a blessing and a curse. But they were friends.”
The exhibition focuses on the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, when the six were still forming their identities and working within a broader creative network that included photographers, stylists, and graphic designers. Debo described that environment as one of independence and creative freedom, with a collaborative energy that helped push the work forward before each designer built a distinct career.
Van Beirendonck’s later path underscores that range. He advised U2 and Erasure on various tours and led the fashion department at the academy from 2007 to 2022.
The show is also a tribute to Marina Yee, who died late last year at 67. Bruloot said the exhibition reflects the way she wanted to be represented, after the curators worked closely with her and remained in daily contact before her death.
By returning the Antwerp Six to the city where their careers began, MoMu frames their legacy less as a fixed collective than as a shared starting point — one that still shapes how Belgian fashion is understood today. The exhibition is on view until January 17, 2027.
