‘Fashion 2.021’: first look at the Antwerp Fashion Museum reopening programme

Save the date for an appointment with tomorrow's world of fashion.

January 12, 2021

MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp – is continuing to refurbish its building in anticipation of its grand reopening in September 2021. A good moment for a foretaste of what is being prepared behind the scenes: ‘Fashion 2.021’ is the name of the ambitious reopening programme initiated by MoMu, the City of Antwerp and Tourism Flanders in collaboration with various partners. From the opening weekend on 4 and 5 September 2021, MoMu will offer a line-up of fascinating exhibitions, open-air projects, walks and activities running until January 2022. The overarching theme of Fashion 2.021: the global transition and meaningful shifts within the world of fashion.

The reopening of the building on the Nationalestraat is the perfect moment to enhance Antwerp's place on the map as an international fashion city; a city that is both the ultimate destination for the worldwide fashion lover and a place that dares to question fashion permanently. The ‘2.0’ in Fashion 2.021 therefore symbolises the general reset within fashion that was accelerated by a crisis year like 2020.

MoMu will be the beating heart of Fashion 2.021, complemented by a wide range of outdoor activities that will take place in the centre. The museum has joined forces with the City of Antwerp and partners such as Tourism Flanders, the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Flanders DC for Fashion and UAMS. Fashion 2.021 is the start of a sustainable long-term vision and collaboration in the field of fashion between all partners. MoMu director Kaat Debo has set her sights on the future: “Our goal is to open up the renewed MoMu to the general public as a fashion hub and meeting point, to provide a unique and socially relevant view of fashion (culture). The reopening of the museum is central to the Fashion 2.021 project and MoMu is curating a reopening programme focusing on the global transitions in the fashion world of today and tomorrow.”

Nabilla Ait Daoud, Antwerp's Alderman for Culture, mainly sees opportunities: “The transition within fashion is a global theme and the concept of ‘reset’ has proven to be socially relevant in all areas. For the City of Antwerp, the reopening of MoMu is a time to celebrate, because while Antwerp has to breathe fashion, it is also a moment of introspection. The city must also reflect critically on its position. This project can further develop the long-term vision of Antwerp as a fashion city and international fashion destination of the future.”

Preview, times three

MoMu has already dropped some hints today with the announcement of three reopening exhibitions that the museum will boast in 2021. ‘E/MOTION – Fashion in Transition’ explores the way in which fashion is an expression of emotion, fear and desire in society: fashion is both ‘emotional’ and ‘in motion’. With this exhibition, MoMu is looking back on the events of the past three decades and asking questions about how fashion can reinvent itself as an industry, as well as the role that fashion designers can play in this in the future.

The exhibition ‘P.LACE.S - Looking through Antwerp lace' highlights the role of Antwerp in the development and international trade of lace. MoMu is presenting this rich history at 5 different locations in the city, in dialogue with contemporary innovative and high-tech fashion creations.

The new collection presentation on the ground floor sheds light on avant-garde Belgian and international fashion, with an alternating presentation of silhouettes and archive material from the museum's permanent collection of more than 33,000 items.

A triple preview from an ambitious and richly filled programme – more on that later this year.