Antwerp is one of the most important trendsetters in the fashion world. The driving force behind the Antwerp fashion scene is the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (“Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen”). The academy is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663.

In the beginning of the 1980s, the fashion world and the international media started to get interested in Antwerp fashion designers. Bikkembergs, Demeulemeester, Margiela, Van Beirendonck Van Noten and Van Saene: these are just some of the names that have made Antwerp an unconventional and innovative centre of fashion. From then on, the fashion department of the Royal Academy shared in this international interest, not in the least because of the continuous quality of the collections designed by some of the aforementioned now famous ex-students and a new generation of designers as Veronique Branquinho, A.F. Vandevorst, Stephan Schneider, Bernhard Willhelm, Christian Wijnants, Bruno Pieters, Tim Van Steenbergen, Peter Pilotto, Les Hommes/ Bart Van Den Bossche and Tom Notte, Haider Ackermann, Kris Van Assche amongst many others.

With their unique approach to design, Antwerp's fashion designers have become a defining factor in world fashion, creating a unique cultural identity, the ingredients of which are passion, spontaneity, craftsmanship and originality.