MoMu Now: a night at the museum

Hello! Last Tuesday I was invited to the MoMu (Antwerp Fashion Museum) for a tour of the new exhibition: MoMu Now. It's an exhibition that focuses on the recently added pieces in the MoMu collection. The guide told us that they have about 25 000 pieces in their collection. 7000 of those pieces have been added in the last 5 years and they wanted to showcase some of these pieces. I love a visit to the MoMu for inspiration and experiencing the museum with a guided tour is truly awesome. Our guide told a lot of information of the designers and on how the pieces were acquired. I love knowing all of these details! Some designers gift pieces from each collection, while others donate pieces after their work has been showcased in the museum. This exhibition focuses mainly on Belgian designers and on designers with links to Belgium such as Peter Pilotto and Haider Ackermann. It's maybe not as accesible as previous exhibitions since they are not showing the big master pieces of well known designers such as the Antwerp Six, but for me, this made the exhibition interesting. You can see work by Raf Simons, for Dior and Jil Sander, by Walter Van Beirendonck, Haider Ackermann, Peter Pilotto, Ann Demeulemeester, A+F Vandevorst, Olivier Theyskens, Ann Salens, Christian Wijnants, Bernhard Willhelm and many others. One of my favorite pieces of Raf Simons by Jil Sander was in the exhibition. I love how the bold skirt is combined with a perfect t-shirt. It's even more beautiful in person. This was one of my favorite pieces in the exhibition. A very bold dress paired with a black jacket: It's a floral trapezium gown by Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Spring/Summer 2011 collection. After the tour we talked with our guide and asked about possibilities to feel the garments and have a look at their insides. She said the MoMu is currently working on a study program so that in the near future it would be possible watch garments from up close and actually touch them and see the way they were made. I'm very excited about this possibility and will follow up with the museum to see when this will be an option! I'm not showing any more images, since I don't want to ruin it for the people actually going to the museum. If you are in the Antwerp area, I'd suggest you check out this charming exhibition! The next exhibition at the MoMu will be a translation of the Dries Van Noten exhibition in Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris last year. They said it will be very different from the one in Paris, which I visitied, so I can't wait to see the one in MoMu too. Do you ever go to a museum for sewing inspiration? Which one is your favorite?

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Images: MoMu Now Campagne + Image, Jil Sander door Raf Simons L/Z 2011, Image: Patrick Demarchelier/Vogue © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd., Graphic design: Paul Boudens Scenography pictures: Boy Kortekaas