Chauncey - menswear

Chauncey, a Brussels-based menswear label is the idea of designer Nathalie Bouhana and her photographer partner David Sdika.

Having previously designed knitwear for Hermès, Salvatore Ferragamo and Anne Valérie Hash, Nathalie has an eye for luxury knits.

Creative, minimalist but exclusive, Chauncey prides itself on European craftsmanship. No eccentricity, but modern design. Extreme precision and the highest quality yarns and manufacturers. An "elegant gentleman traveler" look with a slice of Belgian surrealism.

This post via http://www.chauncey.be/index.html

BELGIUM - the movie

"Belgium, the movie" is the first film in HD about Belgium. It shows the most important and most beautiful places of this little known country. The stability of the images is amazing and the shots, which were taken over a period of 8 months, are filmed in the best circumstances. We take the viewer for a journey through time. This film has been filmed entirely from a helicopter with a High-Definition (HD) Cineflex camera.

The film is available on DVD in three languages (English/Dutch/French).

www.robberechts.tv

Martin Margiela Book

"Graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury trends. Working first with the house of Gaultier, Margiela absorbed the radical design of Japanese deconstruction, making it wholly his own with the founding of his own label in 1988. Margiela propounds a singular, enigmatic look, moving beyond the recognizable tropes of deconstruction—a monochromatic palette, out-sized garments, non-traditional fabrics, exposed seams, or roughly appliqué-d details—to develop a fully considered worldview, one with elegance, mystery, and menace in equal measure. This book provides an inside look at the design process from a craftsman who creates pieces prized for their originality, delicacy, and daring. In the spirit of Margiela’s garments, the book is a work of art in itself, designed exclusively by Margiela and complete with silver inks, ribbon markers, a variety of lush paper types, twelve booklets, and an embroidered white-linen cover. This book provides a window onto the intimate, handmade world of a unique designer."

This post via http://www.rizzoliusa.com/

Paper Fashion @ the Antwerp Mode Museum

Expensive fabrics are dismissed from the Haute Couture and Designer outfits made from paper that were on display at the Belgian Fashion Museum. Pieces included in the show were detailed Chanel couture, Issey Miyake and Anna Piaggi, among st others. Above are just a few examples of this past exhibit ...

The artsy space also welcomed collections of books, magazines and records, everything fashion related, as well as two exhibits per year.

Mode Museum
Nationalestraat 28
Antwerp, Belgium 2000
phone: +32 3 470 2770

This post via http://www.madeupdisease.com/

Garnier Antiques - 100% Belgian Style

You wanted Belgian Style? So here it is ... pure 100% undiluted Belgian style! This is the property of antique dealers and interior designers Brigitte and Alain Garnier. I stumbled upon their stunning place on the blog Belgian Pearls where you can go to see more pictures of the interior ... If this doesn't make you drool, I don't know what will! It's nice to be Belgian sometimes ... just don't tell the French.

More @ http://www.garnier.be/
Read more @ http://belgianpearls.blogspot.com/2009/09/open-doors-at-garnier-antiques.html

The placement of objects

I always remember how my grandmother used to cluster objects together to create beauty and warmth ... above are just a few pictures taken from the very cool (warm) blog http://www.belgianpearls.blogspot.com/

North Sea apartment

Knokke lies on the easterly extremity of the Belgian coast, close to the Netherlands border. It is a place of shifting horizons and sweeping vistas, its quiet drama heightened by the extraordinary quality of the light, the blues, greys and ochres of a prospect of vast skies, sea and rolling dunes giving way to the lusher greens of a nature reserve beyond the shore.

The apartment wraps the western end at first floor level of one of two new apartment buildings designed by Marc Corbiau. The apartment incorporates north, south and west aspects, ensuring good natural light throughout the day and a range of views across sea, town and landscape. A key challenge for the interior architecture was to harmonize the potential for a rare quality of expansiveness with the functional needs of the program Generous private quarters incorporate bedroom, dressing, shower and terrace.

The remainder of the floor plan is left spatially fluid, preserving internal vistas of 20 meters whilst accommodating the functions of kitchen, dining, living and library, with a choice of places to sit, work or relax, inside and out.

This post by and via John Pawson

Ghent apartment

This scheme encompasses the basement and raised ground floor of an existing building on the Korenlei promenade, close to the bridge of Sint-Michielsbrug, in the Belgian city of Ghent. The brief was for a pair of apartments, each able to accommodate seamlessly the dual functions of living environment and office, whilst also offering a sympathetic context for art - collectors of modern and contemporary art and furniture, the clients acquired a series of pieces specifically for the project, in response to the evolving design.

On the lower floor, kitchen, dining, working and living spaces are brought together in a single fluid territory, which also functions as self-contained office, with windows framing a series of views across the water to the old town. Private quarters are located at one end of the floor plan.

The upper floor is arranged to take advantage of the generous ceiling heights and enhanced natural light and aspect. The design refines the existing spatial divisions to create two elegant offices in the heart of the floor plan, framed to one side by open living space and to the other by a second set of private quarters.

One of the defining experiences of the finished spaces is the way in which very simple surfaces and spare volumes frame views of the filigree towers and ornamented gables of the Old Town, these counter-pointed by a series of extended internal vistas.

This post by & via John Pawson

Catherine Francois - Tomorrow's Man

This incredibly difficult installations took place on the beaches of Belgium's Knokke-Heist where this sculpture, titled "Tomorrow's Man" by Belgian artist Catherine Francois, was placed on one of the many tide breakers. The real performance was to see the piece interact with nature as it was literally submerged by the north sea until it finally fell on it's side sinking into the sand.

"Tomorrow's Man" ... trying to achieve a balance between man and nature ... placed between land and sea, watching him disappear and reappear ... having an attitude of humility towards the immense power of the infinite sea ..." - Catherine Francois

It took a few trials and errors before the sculpture could be reinstalled safely and is now available for viewing but I'm not sure for how long. Check back later ... I might know by then.

Michel Clair photograph ...

4

Discovered on flickr.com, I love this photographs from Belgian photographers Michel Clair.

Laure Kasiers (Textile Designer)

Above are samples, textures and inspirations from the website of Laure Kasiers, a freelance textile designer based in Brussels, Belgium. In altering the "purpose" of materials, she is promoting the use of technical materials and production scraps... She addresses, through research on structures and the concept of mobility, the concept of contrasts — thanks to careful selection of materials and colors. Her production is characterized by thickness and high density, offering tactile and sensitive relationships between comfort and warmth.

You can read more about Laure here