The Antwerp Six

A masterful group biography of the Antwerp Six—the visionary Belgian designers who transformed modern fashion and, in the process, changed what it meant to be a designer. In the early 1980s, inside the storied halls of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, a quiet revolution was taking shape. Belgium was not yet a fashion capital, but six young designers were preparing to redraw the map. They would become known as the Antwerp Six: Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene, and Marina Yee. Bound not by a manifesto but by shared training and fierce independence, they rejected convention and changed fashion forever. In The Antwerp Six, acclaimed fashion writer and creator of the hit podcast Articles of Interest Avery Trufelman brings the legend into intimate focus, tracing how these six designers became global tastemakers while also charting the seismic shifts that transformed the industry around them. Drawing on new interviews and firsthand accounts, Trufelman reveals the ambitions, rivalries, and daring behind the clothing, while exploring how the era of luxury conglomerates like LVMH forced a reckoning between artistic vision and commercial scale. At the center is a radical influence that still shapes what we wear today.