Veronique Branquinho exhibition

VB, Autumn/Winter 00-01, Photo Annick Geenen (All photos courtesy of MoMu)

If in Belgium this summer, don’t miss the exhibition dedicated to Veronique Branquinho currently on view at the ModeMuseum in Antwerp. As an accompanying article by Cathy Horyn explains, Branquinho—the daughter of a Portuguese father and a Flemish mother—emerged in the generation of Belgian designers following the Antwerp 6. After her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, she presented her first collection in Paris in 1997 as a series of photographs featuring a white-robed woman running through a forest and was soon embraced by the celebral fashion establishment.

Recounting the ambivalent position Branquinho occupies in the over-signifying market-driven and spectacle-laden fashion world, Horyn writes of the Belgian designer’s work:

“Over time, her work would encompass many of her character traits such as independence, self-reliance, tenacity, and perhaps, above all, mystery. Even if clothes cannot adequately express the complexities of human behavior, Branquinho seems to approach design with idea that not everything needs to be explained or understood.”

VB, Spring/Summer 2000, Photo Jean François Carly