BRUSSELS BOUTIKQ

All the wonders the Brussels Boutikq pop up shop had to offer, including some of my favourites from Marc Philippe Coudeyre, and Guiseppe Virgone who we met on the fashion trail the next day. The pop up shop happens every year around the time of the fashion trail so, a definite stop off for anyone visiting Brussels looking to find some young design talent. The pop up store will also be visiting London in a couple of weeks at St Pancras, email or comment if you want the exact date and place and I will pin it down for you.

EAST VS WEST

Our first stop in Brussels was to visit the opening night of a 2nd year fashion design exhibition from the students of La Cambre. Mannequins were set up in pairs featuring two separate projects from the students of La Cambre and students from a Korean fashion school. The task was to create a garment using each others techniques; Korean students told me they had been set a project to weave on the stand using a more Western approach of ‘being more free’. They were telling me how in Korea they draw, pattern cut and make the final garment but they never drape on the stand or come to a different conclusion from what they’ve drawn the first time around. I suppose that’s a very commercial approach, we do that here too but in high fashion you can drape, experiment and let the final outcome be different from what you’ve originally dreamt up. 

I loved the styling of the exhibition, with mannequins dressed in animal heads and tube socks with fluorescent light strips lighting the room. I think my favourite piece of all was the giant yellow and orange wool coat.

If you’re in Brussels, you can see the exhibition being held inside the Brussels Boutikq at Nieuwe Graanmarkt 10 Nouveau Marché aux Grains, 1000 Brussels.