belgium :: antwerpen :: fashion

[TarHeart]

I have recently been in Antwerpen. I went there because I wanted to explore the fashion world of Belgium designers, and other designers as well.

This is my personal reflections of the stores I visited, and the city overall. I hope this can be interesting for those who want to go to Antwerpen, or have already been there.

Pardon my bad english.

I first visited the Dries Van Noten store. I'm not so fond of his design, but I understand people who are. The store was good, but smaller than I expected it to be. It was of course not very small, but not very big either. If you like Dries, I don't think you would be disappointed. The fabrics, and the material of his clothes are fantastic, but the pricing was a little bit higher than I expected. The ground floor was only for the woman’s, and the upper floor was only for the men, with accessories and shoes. The store had a nice interior design, but the staff remained anonymous. That was the only thing negative. Overall, good store.

The Yohji Yamamoto store was the one I wanted to visit the most. My first impression was overwhelming. When I entered the doors, I felt really excited. It was totaly white, the floor, the walls, everything was white and the lightening was really bright (also white of course). It was like an enormous space of white, it felt a bit surrealistic, like in a Kubrick movie. The staff was really friendly and unpretentious. I don't know how many hours I spent there, trying clothes and talking to the staff. It was just great. The staff told me the space had been an exhibition space before, and it was not hard to imagine. It felt more like an exhibition of clothes, than a store, but nothing negative with that. I thought it was great. The bright light made all the black clothing seem blue, which was kind of annoying. The lightening was maybe a little too bright. The menswear collection was good, but this season was not my favourite. The staff told me they had never had so much colour in the store before. I like Yohji for his use of black, and not crazy pink outerwear, or boxer shorts. The Yamamoto-Antwerpen store usually takes in just black, because that is what the customers want. In Paris, it was different, they liked more colour. But if you like the black, just like I do, I can recommend going to the Antwerpen store. The pricing was a bit high though, I didn't expect Y's collection to be so expensive, but it was. The mainline was of course expensive as well, but some pieces were really worth it. Some pieces not, due to the low quality.

My second highest priority was of course the Demeulemeester store, beautifully located in Leopold de Waelplaats. This was more than I expected. The staff was only women. The one who helped me was really friendly, and not at all pretentious. The store had a beautiful wooden floor, and a special scent which was nice. There were two floors, the ground floor was for the women’s, and the second floor was for men’s collection and some women’s collection as well. The clothes were fantastic, the shape and the cuts, the fabrics, everything was just great. Though I had bad timing, the staff told me that many pieces had already gone. If you want to go to Antwerpen, do so in the beginning of the season. I noticed that not every garment was available in many sizes. This was also for the Yamamoto store. Since both Demeulemeester and Yamamoto have international clients, the best pieces disappear quickly. This is maybe not a big surprise, but I thought I would mention it to everyone who doesn’t know. The men’s collection will arrive the first week of august, and for the Yamamoto store, the men’s collection will arrive in the end of august. Overall, the Ann Demeulemeester store was more than enough satisfying.

After the Demeulemeester store, I visited the Veronique Branquinho store. This store was really small, but filled with good pieces. As always, the women’s collection was at the ground floor, and the men’s collection was on the upper floor. Veronique Branquinho’s design is really tasteful with some extraordinary details. The quality of each garment was high and the pricing not so bad. The interior design was something special. Really tasteful. The staff was friendly and unpretentious, maybe a little anonymous. The only negative about the store was the small space, and the little amount of garments.

The second hand store Labels Inc. was not far away from Branquinho’s store. This store was nothing special when I went there. They carried mostly woman’s clothing, but also a lot of men’s clothing. They sold Ann Demeulemeester (mostly for women’s), Dries van Noten, Number Nine and Martin Margiela etc. The store was really small, which was unpractical because of all the people. The staff was busy, and the interior design was nothing noticeable. Overall, this was a pretty bland experience.

I went to the Coccodrillo shoe store which was really good. The store was pretty small, but filled with good and interesting shoes. They carried Raf Simons (they actually had the rare runway shoes, and several sneakers), Prada, Dior, Lanvin, Dries van Noten, Martin Margiela and more. I can really recommend the store if you are looking for stylish footwear. I didn’t get an impression of the staff, since I was not really interested in buying any shoes. Overall I really good store.

I read about the store called Louis, and I went there. They had clothes from Rick Owens, Lanvin, Martin Margiela, Acne etc. I was not very excited about the store. The staff was pretty weird, the guy who seemed to own the store was following me around. I guess that’s what he’s suppose to do, but he didn’t say anything. I thought it was awkward, but I didn’t mind. I looked through all the clothes pretty quickly, and then I went. It was just the usual stuff. Pretty nice store though, but nothing special, pretty small space too, and not very much pieces to be found.

The Walter store was really something. It was a little “offâ€, but still central. It was near the Yamamoto store. The “doors†was not exactly doors, but a plastic garage door which automatically opened. This was really cool and funny. The store itself is hard to describe, but I’ll try. The store space was huge, it was a lot of white, like the Yamamoto store. It felt more like an art gallery, than a store. They had not very much clothes, or maybe it just felt this was because the store was so huge. I don’t know. It was interesting to visit the store, that is for sure. Even though I would never buy anything from Walter, his design is just not my cup of tea.

Maybe the opposite of Walter, I also visited the store called Verso. This was a really great store. The space was enormous. It was much larger than I expected it to be. They had a lot of pieces from designers such as Dior Homme, Dirk Bikkembergs, Alexander McQueen, Prada, Jil Sander, John Galliano, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana etc. The interior design was really classy. Everything about this store was nice, except I didn’t see any staff, but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t really interested in buying anything, but it was still worth a visit. Overall, Verso did amaze me since they had so many pieces. It was just great. Truly a recommended store.

I went to the Houben store since I was interested in Comme des Garcons. Houben is not an official Comme des Garcons store, but they carry the whole collection(!). They carry the perfumes, the Comme des Garcons Homme Plus collection, the Shirt collection, pretty much everything by Comme des Garcons. This was just great. They also had designers like Undercover, Raf Simons (a lot of pieces), Y3 and more. The interior design was really classy. The only negative about Houben was the location, it was pretty “offâ€, but it was not really a big problem because Antwerpen is a pretty small city. You can easily walk pretty much everywhere. The staff was unfortunately a bit tense, a bit uptight. Why couldn’t she just relax, and behave like normal? Pretty weird lady, a bit pretentious, but alright. She seemed to know a lot and it was interesting to talk with her. Houben is highly recommended. They also had an outlet store, but it was small, and not very exciting.

At last, I would like to say Antwerpen is a wonderful city. If you are interested in going there, go there. You won't be disappointed.

[hapsical]

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Edited July 24, 2014 by hapsical

[TarHeart]

Thank you!

No problem!

I'm sorry, but I can't recall they sold any sandals.. I think they just had the "army boot sneaker" (with the velcro straps), and some of the runway shoes.

But I'm not 100% sure. Maybe you could e-mail the store?

/Jesper

[hapsical]

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Edited July 24, 2014 by hapsical

[steve_antwerp]

Great to hear from somebody who is actually visiting the city to give such an accurate report. I live already for some years in Antwerp myself but I find the staff in Verso very cocky unless you are obviously wearing some of the brands they sell.

Some updates maybe:

- On the Meir (a real commercial street), you can find an amazing mall called Stadsfeestzaal. The shops are not that amazing but the interior is as well as the Laurent Pierrer Bar

- If you are into the real trendy second-hand shopping, pass by Episode, not far the Yamamoto

- Cats&Dogs for real cool kids-clothing

- The Copyright bookshop full of Must-Have art-books

- And the once more trendy and alternative but still worth a visit: Kammenstraat, full with streetwear, sneakers, jeans,...

[coquin81]

Btw, Verso is having sale now...actually i like the shop of dirk birkkemberg... they have leshommes and alexander mcqueen...

[Mr HaGa]

Nice report on my hometown. Good call on Louis, I never cared for the space or the staff. It's been years since I set foot into Verso, I really don't like that place. And the Yamamoto store only opened after I moved to the US, I've never been, but will go next time I'm home.

My absolute favorite in Antwerp is Stephan Schneider, check it out next time you're there!

[coquin81]

sure stephan schneider is great.. i have bunch of clothes from him.. loads of hoody, suits.. gr8 stuffs.

btw, i like les hommes & dries too!

they used to have my absolutely favourite : dirk schönberger.. but he moved back to germany:-( and worked for joop!

louis has rick owens, belenciaga and laods of other fab stuffs.

[luxaeterna]

Wow, great report. Need more like this here.

[readytoignite]

i never had a problem with the people at louis (though mostly went before the ownership change). it's pretty common to not have the shop assistants mobbing you with attention unless you actually look like you need help. at any rate i got the impression that a big chunk of the business louis did was with tourists, specifically from england.

schneider always struck me as super boring for some reason though the store is pretty cool if you're into that.

also if you went to antwerp and didn't find anything food or drink-wise to comment on you didn't really go properly!

[jbone]

to be fair to TarHeart, the thread is a "Report on Antwerpen as a city of fashion"... would like to hear about your experience on the food/drink though

[healthyboy]

I heard a lot about Labels Inc, are there any super crazy bargain prices? From your review it seems pretty shitty and not worth visiting but I may have a look when I go if I can score some Belgian designers on the cheap

[coquin81]

i dont like Labels inc .. its second hand and pretty expensive actually... at least in coparision to the stocksale.

you guys should go to pierre stock its in mol.. gr8 address!

www.depotpierre.be;

turnhoutstebaan 168 b mol

t 014318657

m 0472320160

they have all brands from Flanders

Martin M

Ann D

and the woman is really nice!

you can also ask for arrangement:-P

[semper]

I'll be working in Antwerp the entire next week. I plan on shopping every single minute that I won't have to work.

[Matay]

Yohji, Walter and Veronique Branquinho have all since closed.

[herpsky]

the little store on the first floor of the fashion museum had a super sick sale when i went about a year ago. they had kitsune v-necks for ~100 euro, tees for 30 euro. also they had a bunch of moncler rain jackets for ~250 euros. the sale was insane. i had bought a bunch of stuff in paris by then (also i had been refraining myself from buying clothes) so I didn't cop a whole lot.

there was a store that had margiela high tops for 200 euros and givenchy nightingale for 800.

it's been over a year but i still regret that didn't robocop.

also bought some euro carhartt for cheap from some streetwear store near an urbanoutfitter knock off.

i enjoyed antwerp. highly recommended.

Edited August 31, 2012 by herpsky

[034936]

Bumping this. Any updates on sufu retail in Antwerp? Any tips on food/coffee/bars/nightlife would be appreciated. Plan on spending 3 days in late September.

Also, any advice on an itinerary for Antwerp, Ghent, and Brussels? Is 5/6 days for all three too ambitious/pointless?

[mrip]

everything is pretty close to the fashion musuem. you can do everything in a day. the big store next to the fashion museum has a pretty big selection. the dries and stephan schneider stores are pretty close, there is a thrift store close by also the jan jan van essche is about a 15 min walk from the fashion museum. i was there for a day and just drank beer and ate fries