Our Resources

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, 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. This year, we focused on the garments in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, along with Coppens’ book, and were guided by primary sources from the MoMu collection in Antwerp and the Ghent University library. In the subsequent years, future groups will explore the collections of the Modemuseum 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. Our research group was interested in these labels, which provided a good starting point for our research project. This year’s group also studied Hirsch & Cie among the labels of interest, along with other lesser-known labels from Brussels, Liège, Mons, and Nivelles.

 

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.