Our Resources
“...with few exceptions you could hardly say there was any such thing as ‘Belgian Fashion’ culture before the eighties.”
Belgian Fashion Design,
Luc Derycke and Sandra Van de Veire
Belgian fashion offers a wealth of sources for researchers. However, despite the prominence of Belgian fashion since the Antwerp Six, surprisingly little is known about the period before that. The main goal of the research project "Fashioning Belgium, 1830-1980," a yearly MA seminar directed by Prof. dr. Maude Bass-Krueger at Ghent University, is to uncover the wealth of historic fashion archives in Belgium and to begin to understand the history of Belgian fashion. This is an ongoing project in which we ask ourselves: what exactly "fashions" Belgian fashion?
In the first year of the seminar (2022-2023), we began reading all the compiled secondary sources on the subject. Books and articles on Hirsch & Cie by Véronique Pouillard, as well as the book Mode in België in de 19de eeuw by Marguerite Coppens, were a good starting point for our research. Then, we began to look at material and paper archives within the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, the MoMu library collection in Antwerp and the Vliegende Bladen archive in the Ghent University Library.
Within the second year of the seminar (2023-2024), the project focused on rediscovering the Belgian avant-garde fashion house Norine. For this, we consulted the archives and collections of the MoMu library, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, and Royal Museum of Fine Arts, all located in Antwerp. Additional resources included those of the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels and the Condé Nast Archives in New York.
During the third year of the seminar (2024–2025), the focus shifted to garments held at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, alongside the previously mentioned book by Coppens. As in previous years, the work was guided by primary sources from the MoMu collection in Antwerp and the Ghent University Library. We also made active use of Agatha, the online search tool of the State Archives of Belgium, to consult birth, marriage, and death records and other archival materials, helping us learn more about the makers and owners of the garments. In addition, we used the Brussels Trade and Industry Almanacs to identify building occupants, trace individuals’ movements within Brussels and its suburbs, and track changes in their professions, providing further insight into people and businesses of interest located in Brussels.
In our fourth year (2025-2026), the focus of our research is the history of the Belgian fur trade between 1880 and 1940. Particular emphasis is placed on the former Brussels-based furrier Raymond Mallien and the building he used for processing and selling furs. We are also working with fur garments from the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, as well as a wide range of fur-related objects from the Museum of Industry in Ghent. Additionally, we draw on paper collections from the Vliegende Bladen archive of the Ghent University Library and the MoMu library in Antwerp.
In the subsequent years, future groups will explore the collections of the Fashion Museum in Hasselt and the Brussels Fashion & Lace Museum.
The Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels has an extensive collection of Belgian garments, managed by Ria Cooreman. The collection includes well-known labels, such as Nathan and Hirsch & Cie, as well as lesser-known brands, such as Ascot, Jenny Van Moergastel, and Bouvy or labels from Brussels, Liège, Mons, and Nivelles. The collection also holds a selection of fur items, including coats, hats, muffs, scarves and stoles.
The MoMu in Antwerp has an extensive archive of Belgian fashion, lifestyle, and women's magazines, including La Mode Illustrée, Ariane, La Femme Aujourd'hui, and Het Rijk der Vrouw. Their study collection in the library is a valuable source for examining garments up close, and the main collection features interesting examples of unexplored nineteenth- and twentieth-century Belgian fashion design.
The Vliegende Bladen archive in the special collections at Ghent University’s Book Tower offers an overview of nineteenth-century shopping culture in Brussels and Ghent. It includes advertisements and correspondence related to department stores, couturiers, and tailors. Some of these archival documents can be linked to the city archives, such as the Brussels Almanac.
The Museum of Industry Ghent holds a collection of around 20,000 objects, images, documents, and stories about industrial society in Flanders and Belgium, from the second half of the eighteenth century to the present day. The collection provides information on the entire life cycle of the textile and fur industry: the production process, finished products, the distribution to and consumption by customers. Resources include machinery, work clothing, promotional materials, interviews with business owners and workers, and finished products. These form an interesting material and industrial-based ground for our research.
