Coinciding with Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion, MoMu & Woolmark organise an academic symposium with an interesting mix of renowned speakers around the theme of knitwear. On Thursday May 5th, the auditorium at the FotoMuseum will be host to this day filled with discussions and opportunities to talk to one another.

Experts from within the fashion world, as well as the authors of the exhibition’s catalogue and curators of the exhibition, will talk about their research on the subject and add exciting new elements that have not been included in the exhibition. The day will be completed with a visit to the exhibition. We hope to see you all on the 5th!

Symposium Unravel May 5th
Auditorium FotoMuseum, Waalse Kaai 47, Antwerpen
Download full programme pdf
Admission €13/ €25 (incl. breakfast & lunch) €5 (students)
Reserve your seat, contact leen.borgmans@momu.be

Following the purchase by the MoMu’s collection department of Petite and Heidi, two turtle-neck woollen jumpers from the Autumn/Winter 2008/2009 collection by Dirk Van Saene, the museum curators have carefully chosen the two pieces to integrate one of the sections of Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion.

It is not the first time that MoMu curators feature Van Saene’s pieces within an exhibition show. The Belgian designer had his creations in the spot previously, for instance, in the Black. Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume exhibition, where there were three beautifully tailored black dresses with exaggerated embellishment on display.

For Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion, Petite and Heidi by Dirk Van Saene, explore the concept of the trompe l’oeil, an optical three dimensional technique extensively used in art and very much enhanced in fashion design by the Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, whose knitted jumpers are also featured in the exhibition.

Once Van Saene said, “…in my eyes there is nothing new in fashion!”. Perhaps his statement is very pertinent as the Petite and Heidi knitted jumpers with black and white motifs suggest a reference to Schiaparelli’s designs with trompe l’oeil motifs. Dirk Van Saene produces a contemporary interpretation of such a technique, certainly evoking Schiaparelli’s connections with surrealist aesthetics through the use of trompe l’oeil.

MoMu visitors to Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion, should be able to confront with the issues related to trompe l’oeil in fashion design, by appreciating Van Saene’s two knitted jumpers, which are placed within the 1920′s knitwear section of the exhibition.

Until June 9th MoMu Gallery presents the ethnic costumes of the 3rd year students of the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Third year students are required to present a collection of eight silhouettes by the end of the year. This collection must be based on a preliminary study of an ethnic culture. This study leads to surprising discoveries, which, combined with the student’s own experiences gives rise to an original collection.

The recreation of a typical costume or dress is seen as a necessary period of contemplation before commencing to design the collection. Using the ethnic costume and resources as a reference, the colours, fabrics, patterns, techniques, accessories and styling are developed and realized. In the third year students are expected to push their work to new heights to create a visionary collection that really highlights the students’ personality, creativity, skills, direction and passion.

With work by Sol Alonso, Anissa Aouar, Wali Barrech, Wim Bruynooghe, Marius Janusaukas, Kenta Kodaira, Claire Michel, Youwie Ng, Tabitha Osler, Rey Pador, Charlotte Pringels, Pierre Renaux and Linda Wiesner.

Ethnic Costumes 2010/2011
Until June 9th at MoMu Gallery
Free admission
www.momu.be

Photo:Ethnic costume by Anissa Aouar

Today our past exhibition STEPHEN JONES & The Accent of Fashion opens in Istanbul. Creative visionary Demet Muftuoglu (VAKKO) has joined forces with Liberatum and MoMu to bring the Stephen Jones retrospective to the VAKKO Fashion Centre in Istanbul, from April 8th until June 8th 2011.

The exhibition is particularly significant for VAKKO as Vitali Hakko himself created VAKKO in 1934 after having started a millinery shop. Today, under Cem Hakko’s leadership Vakko has established itself as Turkey’s leading luxury fashion house. In a specially constricted pavillion at the Vakko Fashion Centre where the hats will be displayed, there will also be a special section on Turkey and the Orient as an influence on Stephen Jones’ work.

MoMu and its Collection Department celebrate a significant donation of fifty-one pieces by Helmut Lang. This wonderful donation gathers a variety of some iconic and minimalistic pieces, including mostly ready-to-wear, but also some fantastic accessories and shoes. The generous donation – MoMu kindly thanks the house of Helmut Lang – compiles an interesting selection that goes from the Spring/Summer 1999 all the way to the Spring/Summer 2005 collection, all containing a balanced mixture between Helmut Lang’s menswear and womenswear.

The Collection Department emphasizes the fact that, accompanying the actual donation, Helmut Lang presented MoMu with an important photographic material illustrating some of the collections donated, which are available in MoMu library for the public use and it should facilitate research projects on the Austrian fashion designer.

Amongst some of the desirable pieces, the Spring/Summer 2005 men’s pair of white denims, printed with bright coloured flowers and leafs motifs in a very sort of organic shape, looking like if they had been painted on denim – certainly gives a daring bit of colour to a very clean and monochromatic, but none the less sophisticated men’s collection. This acquisition features from the Spring/Summer 2004 women’s collection, a cut out sleeveless cotton red dress, with shinny tulle net as under slip appearing at the dress hem, suggesting a fresh sexy-chic Summer look; the jersey skirt with metallic leather details – featuring one sort of metallic tube coming out of the skirt hem, is an intricate and a cool edgy piece. For those obsessed with shoes, MoMu was presented with a pair of high-heels sandals with pony hair fringe, from the Autumn/Winter 2004/2005 – a very successful design piece from that collection. This particular donation enables MoMu to collect, but also to tell a story about a designer who made simplicity look chic, and interpreted minimalism with great authenticity. Thanks to Helmut Lang.

Photo:©Helmut Lang

At MoMu’s request, a city knitting group has been started as a side-project of our current Unravel exhibition. This project has been initiated by guerillia knitter Toos Van Liere from ‘artPLASTIEKfabrique’. In collaboration with a group of professionals as well as hobbyist Antwerp knitters, Toos realized several plastic knitted pieces to decorate the street scene of Antwerp. A total of 18 metres has been knitted in plastic, they can be admired until August 14th at the Groenplaats in Antwerp.

Photo:Antwerp knitters with their knitted pieces

On the occasion of the exhibition UNRAVEL. Knitwear in Fashion, Woolmark will organise a knitwear workshop on Tuesday April 5th. This interactive workshop will introduce designers with the latest developments in the knitwear-industry.

On the programme:

* Peclers Paris will introduce the trends for summer 2012
* Practical introductions on the latest industrial knitting techniques and innovation in paint-, print- and finishing- methods, like 3D- en special felt-effects.
* After the workshop participants are free to visit the exhibition UNRAVEL. Knitwear in Fashion.

Woolmark Knitwear Workshop
Tuesday, April 5th, 1PM-4PM
Language: English / Price: €15
Registration mandatory, limited capacity.
pascale.delrue@momu.be

Visitors of the exhibition Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion will be amazed to discover the work of Rotterdam based artist and designer Bauke Knottnerus in the entrance hall of the museum. His so-called Phat Knits (large-scale knitted design elements) is an enlarged gradient knitwork. The tubes in these pieces were entirely knitted by the East-Flanders family company Cousy, one of the last knitting firms in Belgium still active in the fashion sector. The yarns for these elements were produced by the Italian thread company Zegna, represented by Woolmark.

With UNRAVEL. Knitwear in Fashion, MoMu presents an exhibition about a material that is very familiar to all of us: knitwear. The exhibition, whichruns from 16/03 until 14/08, will challenge certain established ideas and show that far from being old-fashioned and dowdy knitting is highly versatile, luxurious and a continuing source of inspiration for high end fashion.

The exhibition will address the important decades of knitwear in fashion, demonstrating knitwear’s popularity both on and off the catwalk and unravelling the changing status of the relationship between knitwear and fashion. UNRAVEL. Knitwear in Fashion will introduce the visitor to a wide variety of exquisite knitted garments and accessories from across the last centuries, with a focus on high fashion pieces and their vernacular interpretations.

Top pieces by national and international designers and labels (Ann Salens,Vivienne Westwood, Sonia Rykiel, Missoni) historic couture pieces (Schiaparelli, Patou, Chanel) as well as more avant-garde and cutting edge pieces by established designers and newcomers on the international fashion scene (Sandra Backlund, Maison Martin Margiela, Mark Fast), will sit side by side to reveal the richness and diversity of knitwear in high fashion.

Tilda Swinton for Sandra Backlund. Published in Another Magazine, Autumn 2009 © Photography by Craig McDean, Styling by Panos Yiapanis

Check out the latest issue of COS Magazine. In this special issue of the magazine and catalogue on the subject ‘work’, Kaat Debo talks to writer Charlie Porter about her job as director of the MoMu Fashion Museum, from the everyday management of the museum to curating fashion exhibitions, trying to grasp conceptual fashion and making it inclusive for a wider audience. You can read the complete interview at cosstores.com

Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion closed yesterday. Thanks to everyone who made this exhibition possible, in particular Stephen Jones and Geert Bruloot and of course everybody who visited the expo! The MoMu exhibition space is now closed until 15/03, while we are breaking down the Stephen Jones exhibition (perhaps we will see you in Istanbul in April, more on that later) and starting the preparations for Unravel. Knitwear in Fashion from 16/03/2011.

“A museum of fashion is more than a clothes-bag.” The author Valerie Steele concisely reinforces the argument that dress and fashion collections owned by museums are indeed culturally significant. For instance, when MoMu acquires a collection from a contemporary designer, either through purchases or donation, the pieces no longer fulfil commercial purposes, displayed strategically as they would be within a boutique interior. During the deal between the donator or seller and the museum, curators have to agree on whether a designer collection would have cultural importance to the institution and relevance in the fashion history context.

Once this collection is introduced to the museum premises, curators, conservators and restorers from MoMu Collection Department would assure that the pieces acquired would follow a number of conservation procedures therefore becoming museum objects. These objects have to be properly registered on the museum system; conserved in storage rooms containing the adequate temperature, humidity levels, lighting and high standards of storage. When necessary, some of these objects may be restored by qualified professionals from the Collection Department.

The conservation and restoration procedures are an on going practice that aims to preserve MoMu’s contemporary fashion collection, for researchers from the institution and outside. By appointments, researchers and students may have a brief access to the storage rooms, supervised by MoMu curators, creating a connection with educational institutions in the field. The objective of the Collection Department is not only to preserve objects, but also to enhance a contemporary fashion collection as part of our cultural heritage.

MoMu visitors, when confronted with fashion objects within an exhibition gallery, may not be entirely aware of the intricate process that an object would have gone through in the Collection Department. These fashion objects represent part of our history, culture, way of life and heritage. Curators aim to tell us a different story about a collection, when displayed within an exhibition space, as opposed to a commercial fashion collection.