Antwerp 2025: Craft, Concept, and Complexity

Amar Singh, Woensel
“Mama, I see clowns…”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

I’m a clubkid and drag queen, and my work centres around self-expression, nightlife, and escapism. As a queer person of colour, my lived experience heavily influences everything I make – and there’s always a clownesque thread running through it. With this collection, I wanted to explore the point where dreamworld and reality begin to merge. I became obsessed with the idea of a corporate fantasy through my own lens. I start with traditional garments and reimagine them as fun, eccentric versions of what they could be. Life is already too serious – so let’s dress up and paint on a smile.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

I like to play with contrast. I explored the corporate wardrobe using traditional materials like wool and poplin, then paired them with fabrics inspired by my dreamworld – clownish, circus-like, whimsical. I also collaborated with my friend Masha Plokhuta (@masha_plokhuta) on embroidery and beadwork to translate the fantasy and spontaneity of my drawings into textured, hand-finished pieces. The colour palette strikes a balance between neutrals and brights, symbolising the tension between the corporate and the surreal.

What’s next?

I want to keep giving my work a life in the clubs. I perform with my partner Dana Montana (@danamontana_x), and you’ll find us on stages all over the world. I’d love to keep exploring performance, but I also fell back in love with fashion during my Master’s year – so I’m curious to see where that might take me. Maybe an internship? Or something more unconventional? I’m open to whatever comes next. I’ll go wherever the party brings me.

@komkomromotyo

Annaëlle Reudink
“Too Many Me’s, Not Enough Hangers” / “Professionally Undecided” (working title) / “Who Am I Wearing?”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

This collection began as a fictional autobiography. I’ve always had too many dreams about what I wanted to become, and those imagined lives are more vivid than ever. One day I heard artist Rinus Van de Velde describe how he paints himself into made-up scenarios as a way of being many things at once – and I realised I do the same in my head. So I decided to create a look for every imaginary character, each one representing a version of me I’ve invented.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

I used a wide colour palette – mixing vibrant shades with black and white – to reflect contrasting identities. Techniques include hand embroidery, beadwork, crochet, knit, and appliqué. I’ve always loved the meditative process of embellishing and can spend hours on tiny details. One standout feature is a patch technique inspired by pop-up books: foldable flower motifs stitched directly onto garments, adding both texture and narrative.

What’s next?

Honestly, I don’t know – and I like it that way. I’m open to whatever comes my way. I just want to work hard, keep creating things I care about, and see where the journey leads.

@annaelle.reudink

Beilu Song, China
“Error”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

This collection explores how controlled systems gradually erase independent thought, replacing it with obedience and rigid behaviour – an unconscious error that becomes the norm. I wanted to reflect the unease hidden beneath this control, using intentional “mistakes” in dressing and a uniform-like aesthetic to suggest silent conformity and loss of self.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

I experimented with structural manipulation to explore rigidity – pulling on suit interiors to create distorted shapes, inspired by a piece I saw at the Loewe exhibition. Each look uses a unified tone to evoke uniformity and brainwashing, while contrasting colours are layered in to suggest tension. Materials include wool, deadstock silk, denim, faux fur, and hair extensions. Some pieces are upcycled directly from second-hand jeans and shirts.

What’s next?

Next, I plan to keep developing my skills and grow through hands-on experience in the fashion industry.

@beilusong

Chloë Reners
“Dot dot dot”

While researching my master collection, I explored how women are represented in surrealism – often fragmented, objectified, or transformed beyond recognition. I was particularly inspired by George Underwood’s paintings and his reflections on how images shape our perception of reality. His faces wrapped in flowing, wave-like forms blur the line between imagination and truth, echoing the way society constructs idealised versions of femininity. The figures in his work are twisted, elongated, held in unreal forms that feel both beautiful and unsettling.

These ideas fed directly into my collaboration with KOMONO, where I developed a pair of sunglasses that were literally sawed in half and horizontally shifted – distorting symmetry and function. Like Underwood’s visuals, this design challenges perception and plays with transformation. I wanted to explore the tension between the familiar and the edited. I started by sketching frames, cutting them out of paper, and then slicing and reconfiguring them to test compositions. The process allowed me to physically manipulate the forms, echoing the distortion and surreal edits I was researching.

@chloereners

Delara Tavassoti
“Almost a Mess”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

The collection explores the delicate balance between structure and spontaneity, creating tension between refinement and playfulness  –  a duality of innocence and maturity. It embraces intentional imperfections and the beauty of messiness over polished perfection. Inspired by the emotional ambiguity in Brian Calvin’s paintings, which portray vulnerability and unease through exaggerated flatness and stillness, the collection celebrates the unpredictable, often chaotic process of becoming. Identity is expressed through disruption, where emotional complexity becomes a strength.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

Materials include felted fabrics to echo the flat, textured quality of painting, traditional lace encased in plastic, and a variety of knitwear. Soft, painterly colours reinforce the collection’s emotional subtlety and graphic restraint. Techniques include tailored silhouettes with misalignments, puzzle-like pattern cutting, and playful textural contrasts. Encased lace disrupts historical codes, adding tension and humour to classic forms.

What’s next?

I’m hoping to find an internship where I can start applying my skills and grow through collaboration and hands-on experience. I’m excited to deepen my understanding of how design functions in a studio setting, refine my approach, and continue developing my voice. This feels like just the beginning  –  I’m ready to keep learning and see how far this journey can go.

@delara.tavassoti

Emiliano Alvarez Torres
“In a Violent Nature”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

David Lynch and the concept of the film auteur as a framework for building a cinematic universe – one that probes our anthropocentric view of nature, exposing its violence and distortion. I developed archetypal characters to explore these ideas, drawing from Carl Jung’s writings on the collective unconscious. The work is also a critique of research itself – treating it as an act of voyeurism and questioning its role in the creative process. This tension between observer and subject runs through the entire collection.

What materials, colours and techniques did you utilise in the creation of this collection?

I used trompe l’oeil techniques to abstract details like pearls, fur, and tailoring, offering alternate readings of familiar elements. Natural latex was used to entrap or freeze fabric, while acrylic and beeswax created similarly suspended effects. Aside from an intentional use of plastic in the opening look, I focused on high-quality natural fibres such as wool, silk, and repurposed leather. Headpieces were shaped from thin foam, hand-moulded with heat.

What’s next?

I hope to join a design team in Europe that values fashion as both critical discourse and sustainable practice. I’m also eager to keep developing the theoretical side of my work starting a Substack to explore fashion critique and conversation. Having come so far to study in Antwerp, I trust my next steps will unfold intuitively – one at a time, with curiosity and care.

@emi.emmy.emy

Floran Polano
“Embraced me, Strangled Silk”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

Centred around the Parental Embrace, this collection expresses a longing to escape the demands of adulthood by returning to the cocoon of childhood memory. It merges the soft silhouettes of 1950s haute couture with the angular brutality of Francesco Somaini’s stone figures. That interplay between sharp and soft reflects the dual emotional states required to grow up: vulnerability alongside resilience. I was also influenced by the tone and world-building of The Killers, Pressure Machine – this is a farewell to simpler times, dreamlike yet grounded.

What materials, colours and techniques did you utilise in the creation of this collection?

All garments were made with fabrics sponsored by Lanificio Luigi Ricceri, following a visit to their mills in Prato. The collection’s palette shifts from dark to light as a symbolic descent into memory and reemergence at dawn. I collaborated with designer Onas Uytdewilligen on bags and a breastplate made from discarded corrugated roof panels, and with sculptor Sunhyo Mast on exaggerated shoes crafted from recycled cardboard. A final highlight was a sunglasses collaboration with Theo, using real fabric to drape a 500% scale model that was 3D-scanned and shrunk back to wearable size.

What’s next?

I’m aiming to join a high-end luxury house in Paris – ideally couture – to keep growing and refining my skills. My time at the Antwerp Fashion Department shaped me into a one-person creative engine, but I’m excited to be part of a team and sharpen my work in the fast-paced environment of professional fashion. I want to learn from the best, and compete with the best.

@floranpolano

Hoyt Zhang
“Drive My Car”

“In response to the mental health challenges brought on by the pandemic, this collection creates a space of comfort – a momentary refuge from the feeling of entrapment imposed by forces beyond our control. It invites those who enter this universe to rediscover the courage and willpower to reclaim their subjectivity and take action once more.

By exploring the tension between the sculptural volume of experimental inner structures and the lightness of ready-to-wear garments – as well as the sense of closeness to nature evoked by outdoor sportswear and the refinement and confidence embodied by well-made coats and tailored blazers – the collection builds a fresh, poetic, and approachable world. The designer draws upon personal experience, channeling the sense of ease and renewal felt during life in Europe into garments that embody freedom and fluidity.

This work is also part of an inquiry: how can we distill a universal, uplifting warmth from the weight of complex social issues? The aim is not only to tell a personal story, but to resonate with others – gently shifting perspectives, breathing new life into the everyday. No longer bound by the starting points, the focus returns to the essence: the simple, human act of making clothes for people, and having fun by making it a little bit crazier. So that, just as the metaphorical title suggests, it may drive us toward farther horizons.”

@dogboluz

Jaden Xinyu Li
“Love Letters to the Unwanted”

“This collection began after a difficult breakup. I was trying to find a way to process a broken heart – not to fix it, but to understand it. I found clarity in In Praise of Love by Alain Badiou, which sees love as a transformative event. Heartbreak, then, is not a failure but a shift – an altered state that changes how we see ourselves and the future.

I started thinking about people and things that are no longer wanted – those who once belonged somewhere but have since been left behind. What happens after that? And how do we continue to carry ourselves forward?

Vintage garments became a central reference. They exist in between stories: no longer attached to their original owners, yet full of traces from the past. Their presence in a shop window reflects a kind of waiting – for renewal, for someone new to claim them, for another chapter to begin. I relate to this transitional space, where identity is not fixed but open to reconstruction.

Visually, the collection also draws inspiration from the film Liquid Sky and the attitude of early Club Kids. These references are not about nostalgia, but about people who build their own image outside of traditional systems. Their looks are exaggerated, performative, unapologetically self-made. I’m interested in that kind of autonomy, especially in moments when emotional support is absent.

The starting point of this collection is simple: whatever – if you don’t love me, I’m still shining on my own. It’s a personal process, one that started as a response to heartbreak but evolved into a space of self-recognition. The more I worked within this world, the more I felt grounded again.

This collection gathers stories of those who feel unloved, or who choose to love themselves fully. Not to romanticise pain, but to acknowledge that heartbreak can be neutral – it just marks a change. And from that point of change, something stronger can begin.”

@jadebyjadenli

Ahn Ji Young
“Hover State_Fake Energy”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

This collection explores retro-futurism – the way people in the 1960s imagined the future with both optimism and fear. I was drawn to that era’s faith in limitless energy and perpetual motion, and the illusion of technological progress that never quite arrived. Today, materialism demands speed while technology blurs the lines between real and fake. I translated that tension into garments that suggest motion, levitation, or unseen forces – like magnetism – through silhouettes that appear to float or teeter on the edge of imbalance while maintaining control.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

I focused on surfaces that shift with movement – textiles that transition from corduroy to velvet, woven bags that expand when worn, and draped tailoring that transforms with the body. These treatments emphasise motion and illusion, reflecting the artificial energy and dissonance at the heart of the concept.

What’s next?

Next, I hope to continue working as a womenswear designer in Paris, where I gained experience before my master’s. Long-term, I plan to launch a leather-focused brand – not just accessories, but clothing too. I’m passionate about expanding leather’s creative potential and redefining how it’s used in contemporary womenswear.

@anji.jiyoung

Lille Schmid
“Loophole”

Is everything really here? / Am I transparent? / Am I too soft? / Should I work on my appearance? / Am I a different person in private? / Are most things connected to everything?

(Fischli & Weiss, 2003, questions no. 21, 240, 389A, 14, 28)

For the past few years in these rooms, I’ve found myself constantly shifting, ever morphing, trying to understand where I begin and where I end. Am I becoming someone else, or merely peeling back layers of myself? Changing the ways I dress, speak, the pace of my walk, as if piecing together a version of myself that would finally feel right. I thought, once I found it, everything would fall into place – order. But I concluded there is no end point, no core, no authentic self hiding beneath the surface – waiting, watching, ready to be betrayed by my pretence. (Does Cindy Sherman have a self she returns to?)

“All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify.”

 – Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)

This search for a fixed self, some finished performance, will never end. The idea that I could land on one “true” version of me – it’s dissolving. By being everything and everyone at once, I’ve found a strange relief. I carry these selves with me, fragmented, scattered like shards of glass in my pocket. If someone asks who I am, I will spill them – spill myself – across the table, like pieces of a cubist painting. I perform all my layers at once. A shift, a glitch in the picture we call reality.

In the spirit of my thesis, Knitting A Suit – where I search for the power in knitting, taking the act of knitting as a metaphor for love – I explore how in public, formal spaces we belittle both. We take love for granted just as we do hand-knitted socks from grandma. We wear this labor lightly, forgetting how each stitch was carried to the other needle under a watchful eye. Just as we overlook the labor it takes to love – the worries, the “how-was-your-day?” – as long as love is given, we seldom ask where it comes from or how it came to be.

Knitting, then, is not just a part of this collection; it is the very soul of it – pushing the private, the intimate, into garments that are solid and sturdy. (Thinking of Erwin Wurm’s knitted rooms – soft walls.) The belief that the cute, harmless, and belittled – knitting, crocheting – are enough to smash some glass was best embodied by Pipilotti Rist, in her video installation Ever is All Over, where she smashes the window of a parked car with a flower. The flower is weapon enough.

I found it! A way through the pinstripes and wools… glitching, playing, shrill and loud, sparkling on stage in sequins – 

I found a LOOPHOLE!

@lilleanalille

María Alborés Lojo
“Lost in tradition, found in Galicia”

What are the key inspirations behind this collection?

This collection is an ode to Galicia, the region in northwest Spain where I was born, and to the 20th-century Galician woman – particularly grandmothers – who have long been central to the region’s cultural and economic life. Galicia’s symbolic matriarchy, shaped in part by waves of male emigration, became a focal point of inspiration. Drawing on the movement and volumes of traditional female dress, I reinterpreted heritage through a contemporary lens, referencing maritime culture and fishing traditions. The work plays with contrasts: domestic strength and harsh labour, tradition and absurdity, seriousness and play.

What materials, colours and techniques did you use?

Colour plays a central role. Instead of folkloric tones, I chose vibrant combinations inspired by Joaquín Sorolla’s luminous depictions of the sea – mustard yellow, seafoam green, deep garnet – evoking his vivid interplay of light and water. I used materials like technical fabrics, leather, and recycled textiles, contrasted with traditional elements like woven baskets. A highlight this year was my collaboration with artisans through the Fundación de Artesanía de Galicia, a sponsorship that honours my deep appreciation for craft and handmade processes.

What’s next?

I’m ready to take the next step and experience what it’s like to work within a major fashion house. Having interned in smaller studios, I’ve gained hands-on experience, but now I’m curious about how creativity, craftsmanship, and structure come together at scale in luxury or haute couture. Over the coming months, I hope to find an internship that challenges and excites me – where I can grow, contribute meaningfully, and stay connected to the joy that drew me to fashion in the first place.

@maalbores

Paula van Dyck
“Black mascara”

“My master’s collection explores superficiality as a coping mechanism – how beauty, artifice, and external appearance can function both as self-preservation and emotional camouflage. The concept is rooted in a deeply personal experience, one that led me to question how women construct and curate their outward identities in response to inner turmoil.

Often dismissed as shallow, superficiality is frequently misunderstood. Here, I reclaim it as a form of empowerment – an armour that controls perception while protecting vulnerability. This duality – between strength and fragility, surface and depth – sits at the heart of the work.

Material choices reflect this tension. I’ve used leather, textured fabrics, and elements like fringes and spikes to suggest both seduction and defence. Each look is topped with a wig, reinforcing the theme of transformation – both literal and symbolic – a mask that challenges the boundary between authenticity and performance.

The palette moves between butter yellow, white, and camel to deeper tones of aubergine, black, and orange, expressing the interplay of softness and intensity, warmth and restraint.

This collection is not about rejecting emotion, but about recognising how beauty can become ritual, meditation, even silent resistance. It asks how we use the surface to protect what’s underneath – and whether, sometimes, the surface might be where truth resides.”

@paulavandyck

Sybrand Jansen
“Shattered pieces kept forever”

“Imagine a denim jacket, buried 200 years ago – broken, full of traces from its past life. It’s unearthed and brought into a museum archive, gently placed in a transparent box lined with white paper. Its circle of life suddenly halts. In its final days of decay, it becomes an undying object. Time no longer moves; it simply rests, silent.

This tension – between the lived, twisted life of a garment and the sterile infinity of preservation – inspires my master collection. I aim to build a bridge between something organic and something eternal, allowing both to coexist and amplify each other’s beauty.”

@sybrand