Queering Masculinities in Antwerp Fashion

ZoneModa

Fashion Studies

Contemporary Fashion, Fabriano Fabbri

Contemporary Architecture, Ines Tolic

April 2, 2025

Queering Masculinities in Antwerp Fashion

With Nicola Brajato

1-3 p.m

Room Briolini 1-2

Palazzo Ruffi Briolini Corso d’Augusto n. 237 – Rimini

Rimini Campus

Nicola Brajato

FWO postdoctoral researcher | fashion and gender studies

University of Antwerp

Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) fellow

Research group AMSoC-Antwerp Media in Society Centre

Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences

Abstract

In this lecture, Nicola Brajato will introduce the Antwerp fashion scene through its historical development, institutional frameworks, and meanings. Focusing on the scene’s distinctive avant-garde creative practices, Brajato will explore how concepts of gender and sexuality have been approached within this influential context. The lecture will pay particular attention to the deconstruction of masculinities, analyzing how Antwerp’s most significant designers, from the renowned “Antwerp Six” to more recent internationally established figures, have systematically challenged and destabilized conventional masculine identities and representations through their groundbreaking work.

Image credits: Walter Van Beirendonck s/s 2022