Nathalie Engels
Nathalie EngelsInfo
About Nathalie Engels
The clothing brand Nathalie Engels is a high-end sustainable label with its origins in Ghent, Belgium.
The brand stands for a collection which is created out of intuition and feeling. Made by a designer passionate by colour in all its aspects.
Nathalie with her 25 years of design experience believes that colour speaks a language that contributes to a positive energy, language that supports and brings out the internal beauty.
Serpentstraat 1 Gent 9000 Belgium
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Ayanne is een open atelier in hartje Gent waar maatkledij volgens de oude Franse haute couturetechnieken wordt vervaardigd. Dames kunnen er op afspraak terecht voor avond- en bruidskledij als ook voor tijdloze basics op maat. Ayanne werkt enkel puts natuurlijke stoffen (voornamelijk zijde) in haunting een uiterst fijne afwerking. Ieder stuk wordt exclusief in het couturesalon vervaardigd. U wordt er hartelijk ontvangen in een vertrouwde warme sfeer.
Aan de hand van professioneel stijladvies gaat Laurence Beyaert samen met de klant op zoek naar het perfecte ontwerp. Het resultaat is een unieke jurk gemaakt naar wens en identiteit van de klant.
Ayanne presenteert bovendien een collectie bruidskledij die tevens op maat wordt gemaakt. Laurence Beyaert, de vrouw achter Ayanne, laat zich inspireen door unieke, persoonlijke verhalen die ze met naald en draad vertaalt.
Dit voor de moderne bruid die belang hecht aan persoonlijkheid en authenticityit.
Laurence studeerde in 2006 af als kunsthistorica aan de universiteit van Gent. Nadien startte ze een opleiding modeontwerp in Brussel. Na enkele jaren in het commerciële circuit van de mode-industrie kon ze aan de slag in het atelier van Kaat Tilley. Zij deed haar dromen.
Deze droom wordt in 2012 werkelijkheid met de opening van een eigen couturesalon annex boutique. Met Ayanne gaan we terug naar een tijd waarin eleven maten met precisie werden opgemeten en eleven ideeën en visies kwalitatief werden uitgevoerd. “Zowel het fragiele als het sensuale, de kracht versus de kwetsbaarheid verenigen en verweven.”
Lange Kruisstraat 6K Gent 9000 Belgium
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Arlette Schmitz is a Belgian slow fashion label…
….that came about in 2018 when former journalist Sophie De Laere decided to switch careers and become a fashion designer. She studied fashion designat SASK Sint-Niklaas and specialised in pattern making.The name of the label was coined after both Sophie’s mothers. The surname of her birthmother who died a very young woman and the first name of her adoptive mother.
Towards sustainability
Our collections are conceived and manufactured locally in Belgium. For the greater part in our own atelier. This local approach results in less carbon emission and no exploitation of workers in low income countries. One of the biggest problems in fashion today is massive overproduction. Our own volumes are kept low to avoid dead stock. Our collections are not discarded after one season and remain available for an indefinite period of time. Fabrics are sourced from European mills. Most of our suppliers hold environmental certificates. Occasionally we use dead stock. We are currently investigating the use of recycled materials. We do not exclude off hand any kind of material in our collection as it is a well known fact that natural as wel as synthetic materials both pose advantages and problems regarding sustainability. Arlette Schmitz aims to make beautiful clothes that you may enjoy for many years. Our customers are encouraged to lovingly mend any wear and tear that may occur. In accordance with the Japanese philosophy of WABI SABI we see beauty in imperfection:
Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect.
Or as Vivienne Westwood would have it:
Buy less, choose well, make it last
Vivienne Westwood
Code of conduct
We make sure no one is exploited during the production of our collections. Inclusivity matters to us. Although our focus lies on the female form, we welcome all persons binary and non binary, straight and queer into the Arlette Schmitz world. A well made sustainable garment comes at a cost showing respect for all fashion industry workers
Blekerijstraat 75 Gent 9000 Belgium
François van Impelaan 75 Gent 9041 Belgium
FIBR
FIBRInfo
OUR MISSION
MEET FIBR. THE FAIRCHAIN ALPACA SWEATER. SOFT ON YOUR SKIN AS EASY ON YOUR CONSCIENCE. FIBR BRINGS RADICALLY COMFORTABLE BASICS, YOU ARE PROUD TO WEAR.
The fashion industry has some of the most complex and unfair supply chains in the world. FIBR believes that creating transparency is a first step towards fairness. Today, only 7% of fashion brands know where their materials come from.
Some room for change, if you ask us.
THE FIBR SUPPLY CHAIN
FIBR IS FAIRCHAIN KNITWEAR: FAIRNESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL, ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE VALUE CHAIN.
Fairchain knitwear takes it a step further, rethinking the entire value chain from the source of the raw materials right to your closet.
FIBR connects three strong local players in PERU, all doing their part to make the Peruvian alpaca sector more fair. By connecting these dots, we managed to set up our own value chain and bring you a product of which we know exactly who made it, where it has been and of which we can be sure that everyone is treated well.
OUR PRINCIPLES
QUALITY IS WHERE IT STARTS
We bring you a timeless sweater made from 100% alpaca fibre, a natural fibre which is praised for its robustness and warmness. This sweater is made to last! And if not, a repair kit will teach you all the tricks.
TRANSPARENCY TO THE BONE
Discover where your money goes to, and all the steps your FIBR sweater has been through. No need to hide our imperfections. We rather would like to share them with you and show where improvement is still needed.
EVERY SWEATER COUNTS
We know that we won’t change the world (although we would love to). But we do know that big changes are made by many small steps.
Leading by example, we tell the clothing industry to dive into their supply chains and show more ambition. We are convinced the fashion sector needs small disruptive ideas to evolve and innovate. Every sweater sold means that another person is inspired by our story. Which is something huge!
PRE-ORDER
AT FIBR WE WORK WITH A PRE-ORDER SYSTEM. THIS MEANS THAT WE ONLY START PRODUCTION AFTER A MINIMAL AMOUNT OF PIECES IS ORDERED. TO CONTRIBUTE TO YEARROUND WORK STABILITY FOR THE KNITTERS, PRODUCTION IS IN LOW SEASON, FROM FEBRUARY UNTIL EARLY APRIL.
Tarbotstraat 10 Ghent 9000 Belgium
Nathalie Vleeschouwer
Nathalie VleeschouwerInfo
Nathalie Vleeschouwer offers the kind of subtle elegance to women of character who want to enjoy life actively and confidently.
The Belgian designer launched her collection in 2011, but the roots of her fashion house go back as far as 1990. Inspiration is derived from all corners of the globe and distilled by Nathalie and her team at their headquarters in Antwerp. Because the soul of the collection is inextricably bound to the designer herself, it has an authentic style and is continually evolving, just like Nathalie’s creative ideas.
Experience, craftsmanship and lasting partnerships with a handful of suppliers and workshops form the basis of every garment that bears her name. Made with love, so that you can wear it again and again, and mix & match it with different items every season. Where the creativity of this collection – released once every six months – stops, yours begins.
Who is Nathalie?
Nathalie Vleeschouwer really does exist. She is not just the designer of the collection; she is also a wife, the mother of three children and two dogs, a traveller, nature lover, city-tripper, swimmer, connoisseur, and so much more.
Nathalie actively enjoys life and the clothing she wears plays an important part in this. It gives her confidence and supports her in all her activities, making it an essential part of her life.
There may be only one Nathalie Vleeschouwer, but many women can identify with her.
Why did she create the collection?
Nathalie Vleeschouwer’s interest in fashion stems from her childhood. Her father was a purchaser for a clothing chain, and as a child she loved nothing more than to accompany him to the big clothing factories. The Antwerp Academy of fashion was a logical next step in her career, but she decided – at the age of 22 – to swap the Academy with learning from practice. This resulted in the launch of Fragile, a maternity wear collection, in 1990. In those days, making fashionable maternity clothing was unheard of. That is how Nathalie became a global pioneer in the world of maternity fashion. The collection was a great success, all the way from Antwerp to Tokyo, and many brands have since followed in Fragile’s footsteps.
Having won the Womed Award in 2010 for female entrepreneurship, Nathalie felt she was ready to embark on a new venture in addition to Fragile. To underscore the authentic style of this new collection she decided to give it her own name: Nathalie Vleeschouwer.
The first collection was presented at the international trade fair in Paris in September 2010 and was available in shops in the spring of 2011.
What does the company Natale do?
Natale stands for Nathalie, and also for the Italian word for ‘birth’.
The family business comprises two collections: Fragile & Nathalie Vleeschouwer. Both are the artistic creations of designer Nathalie Vleeschouwer. The management of Natale is in the hands of Nathalie herself and her husband, Jan.
A staff of approximately 40 work hard every day, prominently or behind the scenes, in a wide range of jobs from pattern designer to sales assistant. By outsourcing as little work as possible experience is combined, ensuring a dynamic business culture.
Who makes your favourite pieces?
Nathalie Vleeschouwer is the head designer of a creative team, and collaborates with her own pattern maker. Each design is developed in detail by our team. We strive to build relationships of trust with all our suppliers and manufacturers, in which transparency and long-term cooperation are of the essence. We regularly visit our partners on site with a view to strengthening our ties and building a genuine relationship of trust and mutual respect.
Socially responsible entrepreneurship and sustainability
Respect for people, the environment and society are key values at Natale.
By opting for quality goods at fair as a starting point, we hope to contribute to enhancing the sustainability of the fashion industry. We deliberately choose to release only two collections a year and are adverse to hypes as well as overproducing. By adhering to this long-term vision we can make honest fashion that you will enjoy for many years to come and in which both the maker and the wearer take pride.
Our collections are produced without any use of child labour, in pleasant working conditions and for honest wages by audited suppliers with whom we build up partnerships with a long-term vision.
Keeping our creative, commercial and administrative departments under one and the same roof in Antwerp ensures that Natale’s environmental impact remains limited. We make every effort to minimise our ecological footprint throughout our production chain as well. This is one of the reasons why we have been sourcing more than half of what we produce from Belgian manufacturers for over 20 years. The remaining half is primarily produced in Europe.
Step by step, we aim to integrate more ecological fabrics into the collection every season – depending on the offering – while always maintaining a correct price/quality ratio.
Kammenstraat 82 Antwerpen 2000 Belgium
Kammenstraat 82 Antwerpen 2000 Belgium
Onderbergen 17 9000 Gent Belgium
Grote Markt 62 2500 Lier Belgium
Ernest Allardstraat 8 Brussel 1000 Belgium
Driehoeksplein 8 Knokke-Heist 8300 Belgium
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ABOUT CESAR
In addition to being a model, food lover, traveler and proud author of my two cookbooks Model Kitchen and Cesar’s Kitchen and the travel guide Trippin, I have launched the Cesar Casier Knitwear Collection. While growing up, I was always surrounded by fashion. My mom owns a high-end fashion boutique “OONA” in Ghent and my stepmom is a fashion designer. They were my biggest influencers and shaped my views on fashion while growing up, the logical next step was to start my own collection.
100% MADE IN BELGIUM.
KNITWEAR COLLECTION
The Cesar Casier Knitwear Collection is 100% made in Belgium, something that is very rare nowadays. Everything I design is produced in a small family owned factory located in Sint-Niklaas, a city between Antwerp and my hometown Ghent. Fact is that back in the days there were about 300 factories located in this area and now there are only two left, a sad reality. Therefore, it is important to support the revival of Belgian knitwear as much as possible!
GENDER NEUTRAL FASHION
Next to my roots, my brand represents Gender Equality. A human right I hold dear and it is something I stand for. I translate this into my designs, as they are mostly unisex. I want my brand to lead the way in gender-neutral fashion. In my opinion, gender no longer dictates the way people dress and it does not force anyone into a box. That is why I try to design as much gender neutral pieces as possible, this allows us to express ourselves exactly the way we all want to. My designs are timeless, comfortable and basic, yet fashionable and with an eye for detail and great quality
CHARITY
I’ve always loved nature and even more, the animals who live in it. That’s why, for every sold item on my website, I’ll donate 1 euro to a charity. For my previous collection I’ve donated money to help save the dolphins, The Great Barrier Reef and the Giraffes in the wild. By donating money to a good cause, I want to send awareness to the public about the beauty of nature and to support animal and nature welfare!
Hubert Frere Orbanlaan 629 Ghent 9000 Belgium
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Since she was little, Jo De Visscher [°1976] is bitten by the fashion bug. She starts working with scraps of fabric which she turns into full silhouettes for her Barbie dolls and gets her mother to knit matching miniature sweaters.
While growing up, she sews her first skirts on an old sewing machine without having any formal training.
She studies maths and science and, as a teenager, becomes fascinated by an article on the restoration of the frescos in the Sistine Chapel. The article has such an impact on her that she decides to enrol in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, where she studies painting and specializes in restoration of contemporary art. She graduates in ’99, learns the ropes at the S.M.A.K., MuHKA and Kunstmuseum Bonn and finally starts her own restoration company (contemporary art conservation) in Brussels.
She’s asked to collaborate on the exhibition ‘Mutilate?-Vermink?’ — curated by Walter Van Beirendonck — at the MuHKA and this project rekindles her passion for fashion. Jo follows her heart, says goodbye to restoration and hello to fashion and clothing. She does an intensive course in pattern making, learns proper sewing properly this time and studies fashion design at night school. She also freelances for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
In 2007, her final year show generates such a buzz that she decides to design and market her own ‘jodevisscher’ collection.
Hoornstraat 6 Gent 9000
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History
1930 BIRTH OF THE NATAN HOUSE
Creation of the Couture House Paul Natan.
1957 Edouard Vermeulen is born in Ypres on March 4, 1957. He graduates as an interior designer from Saint-Luc college, which introduces him to the world of volumes and materials.
1983
AVENUE LOUISE 158
In his search for a gallery to display his first discoveries, Edouard Vermeulen rents a space in the Couture House Paul Natan, Avenue Louise. A few years later, he takes over the House under the new name NATAN.
1986 FIRST RUNWAY SHOW
NATAN’s first show, with Princess Paola as one of the guests.
Edouard Vermeulen has been dressing members of royal families for years, including the Royal Family of Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg.
1987 FIRST READY-TO-WEAR STORE IN BRUSSELS
Opening of the NATAN ready-to-wear store in Brussels, Belgium.
1991 DISTRIBUTION
Creation of ready-to-wear lines for distribution.
1999 WEDDING DRESS QUEEN MATHILDE OF BELGIUM
Edouard Vermeulen designs the wedding dress of Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
2013 NATAN 30 YEARS
To celebrate our 30 year anniversary, we organized a fashion show in Paris in the Belgian embassy.
2014 ARSENAL SHOWROOM
Opening of the Arsenal showroom.
2016 AMSTERDAM STORE
Inauguration of the NATAN boutique in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2017 NATAN COLLECTIVE
Launch of NATAN Collective. A project allowing NATAN to support young Belgian talent by giving them the opportunity to present their work enhanced by the knowhow and name of NATAN.
2017 BARON
Edouard Vermeulen is awarded the noble title of “baron” for his services rendered to Belgium.
2018 ATELIER II
Inauguration of Atelier II at Place Brugmann in Brussels, Belgium. This atelier is created to honor the craft of tailoring by giving customers insights into the process behind the creation of a NATAN piec
2019 FIRST RUNWAY SHOW IN THE NETHERLANDS
Natan participated for the first time at Amsterdam Fashion Week.
2020 PARIS
Opening of a store in Paris, Rue des Saints-Pères
2021 OPENING SALON COUTURE KNOKKE
2022 NATAN LE BON MARCHÉ RIVE GAUCHE
The Belgian fashion house Natan and the cosmetic brand Sisley came together in the very heart of the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, combining their expertise and shared love for beauty and quality in a “Pop-Up” space.
This partnership consolidated the elegance, expertise and femininity held dear by these two family companies, that share values passed down through generations: concern for the environment, expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, art and design.
Avenue Louise 158 Brussels 1050 Belgium
PRESS Avenue des Aubépines 1 Brussels 1180 Belgium
Huidevettersstraat 44 Antwerp 2000 Belgium
PC Hooftstraat 23 Amsterdam 1071 BL The Netherlands
Rue des Saint-Pères 71 Paris 75006 France
Rue de Namur 78 Brussels 1000 Belgium
Henegouwenstraat 91-93 Ghent 9000 Belgium
Kustlaan 150 Knokke 8300 Belgium
Jan Mahieustraat 20-22 Roulers 8800 Belgium
Plankstraat 10 Maastricht 6211 GA Belgium