Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts MA Fashion 2014

Antwerp, northern Belgium. In this city of Flanders experimentation, improvisation and innovation invent tomorrow's fashion. It was the mid-80s when the world notices that this place on the banks of the Scheldt and it does thanks to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and to six of his students: Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs e Marina Yee. The Six of Antwerp, together with Martin Margiela, burst onto the international scene with their radical and revolutionary style, giving to their school, with the fame, the task of forging the next generation of designers. Veronique Branquinho, A.F. Vandevorst, Stephan Schneider, Bernhard Willhelm, Bruno Pieters, Tim Van Steenbergen, Peter Pilotto, Haider Ackermann, Kris Van Assche are just some of the talents coming out of the academy. Among its walls they have breathed creativity, tested their limits and capabilities, refined their style and their own voice. Not only they learn how to choose fabrics, cuts and stitches, but also to reflect society through the clothes, its past, present and especially the future. The shows at the end of the course are real performanc that recall insiders and press, curious to know the names that will dictate the fashion of tomorrow. This year, under the gaze of Walter Van Beirendonck, creative director of school for twenty years, marched dandi psychedelic, irreverent bad girls, melancholic beauty and sophisticated kaleidoscopes.

The Japanese Hyein Seo steals the pearls of her mother and reinvents as tinsel rebellion in her look. It's a street uniform, revisited with slogans such as "School ruined my life", varsity jackets and skirts in satin with skulls that have already conquered the singer Rihanna.

From the naughty girl you pass to the female and sad, for the lost love, one by Virgina Burlina. The young Italian is inspired by art brut Madeleine Sir, who abandoned at the altar has spent her life in psychiatric care made ​​bridal gowns with torn sheets. The result is a evocative, melancholy and delicate work. Clara Jungman Malmquist plays with layering and colors, while Emmanuel Beguinot brings neorealism in androgynous style. The Austrian Raffaella Graspointer pays homage to Joan Miró and David Hockney with a kaleidoscopic collection where clean sihouette vibrates with color and flowers.

Sophisticated and aristocratic Kristina Kharlashkina chooses soft colors to evoke on the catwalk the spirit of Russian tsarinas, while Madeleine Coisne see a hybrid between Japan, Gaugin, Byzantine architecture and ceramics. If Yens Cuyvers mixes sportswear and psychedelia, Eran Shanny creates a vital men's collection with childish details and layers. Year after year, the youth of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts continues to amaze, intrigue and interest.