Antwerp Life & Fashion

 Fashion in Antwerp

Antwerp is known as a true fashion city. Quite a lot of today's famous designers graduated from the Antwerp Art Academy. Credit for the phenomenon goes to the so-called Antwerp Six, and in equal measure to the designer who trained them, Linda Loppa. As the story goes, six graduates of the Antwerp Academy from the years 1980 and 1981 rented a truck and drove to the London fashion week. After taking the show by storm, the members of the group became brand names around the world - literally. The six are Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dirk Van Saene, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, and Marina Yee.

In the capricious world of fashion, the Antwerp Six have shown notable staying power. Their success has helped to turn Antwerp into a spawning ground for young designers (Stephaan Schneider, Raf Simons, and Kaat Tilley are more recent standouts) and make it a fixture on the fashion map.

Life in Antwerp

The people

The inner city of Antwerp has approximately half a million inhabitants. About a million people live in the greater Antwerp area (Antwerp and its suburbs).

The language

The province of Antwerp is part of Flanders. The official language is Dutch, as you might know by now. Since we speak with a different accent than the people in the Netherlands, we say we speak Flemish. The Flemish and the Dutch have no trouble understanding each other though. Most people speak also French and English. We recommend that you speak English if you don't speak Flemish (or Dutch).

Taxes and tips

If you go to a restaurant or a shop you pay the price you see. All taxes and tips are included. It is completely up to you however, if you want to give an extra tip to that nice boy or girl that treats you well.

Phone booths

There are two public phone companies: the blue phones hanging on walls and the phone booths operated by Belgacom. The phone booths are cheaper than the blue phones but most of them work with a telephone card you can buy in any newspaper stand. If you want to call abroad, it is better to buy an international calling card (e.g. Intouch). The area code for the province of Antwerp is 03. Calling from abroad to Antwerp is 0032 3 + number