MoMu (Mode Museum) is the fashion museum of the City of Antwerp, Belgium and collects, conserves, studies and exhibits the largest collection of historical and contemporary designer fashion in Belgium, and holds the largest collection of Belgian fashion in the world. The museum focuses specifically on Belgian fashion designers and alumni of the Fashion Department due to the number of acclaimed designers who studied there during the 1980s and 1990s, including Martin Margiela and the Antwerp Six.

Since 2002, the museum has been located in the centre of Antwerp in the ModeNatie building on Nationalestraat. ModeNatie also houses Flanders District of Creativity, the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp), and the Renaissance restaurant. Linda Loppa, MoMu's first director was also the founder and director of the Antwerp Fashion Department. MoMu's current director and chief curator is Kaat Debo. The museum is under the administration of Antwerp province.

Architecture The ModeNatie building dates back to the nineteenth century, where it housed the Hôtel Central and the clothing shop New England. It served various purposes throughout the twentieth century until 1997, when the building was assigned to Flanders Fashion Institute (now Flanders District of Creativity) by the City of Antwerp.

In 1999, Ghent-based architect Marie-José Van Hee was commissioned to renovate the building, and on September 21st 2002, MoMu officially opened its doors. From April 2018 to September 2021, the museum was closed for renovations by the architecture firm B-architecten, adding 800m² of public space while preserving Van Hee's original design.

Collections

The MoMu Collection

MoMu's collection contains over 40,000 items: clothing, accessories, and textiles, as well as more unexpected pieces such as tools and machines used in production. The collection is constantly growing with new acquisitions, loans, and donations from private individuals, designers, or fashion houses. These items are used for research, MoMu exhibitions, and international loans to other museums.

MoMu's historical collection began with 17,000 pieces from the former provincial Costume and Textile Museum Vrieselhof (Provinciale Kostuum- en Textielmuseum) in Oelegem. In 2011, this collection gained over 2000 18th-, 19th-, and early-20th-century objects from the private Dutch collector, Jacoba de Jonge.

Since 2011, MoMu's acquisition policy prioritises contemporary designer fashion. Sizable donations from Linda Loppa and Christine Matthijs initiated this part of the collection, which has since grown with donations from Dries Van Notenand Bernhard Willhelm among many others. MoMu also receives long-term loans to its collection, including from Walter Van Beirendonck, Stephen Jones, and Geert Bruloot and Eddy Michiels, the founders of the former shoe shop Coccodrillo.

Dries Van Noten Study Center and the MoMu Study Collection

The Dries Van Noten Study Center (DVNSC) supports research and educational activities, participating in national and international projects, hosting activities, and creating an accessible collection of garments and accessories - the Study Collection. This collection consists of over 2000 objects and is housed in the MoMu library for public consultation.

Library Collection In addition to the fashion and costume collection, the museum also houses a vast library collection. The MoMu Library is an academic library for historical and contemporary fashion and textiles, with over 15,000 books, an archive of reference works and ephemera, hundreds of contemporary and historical magazines, and a digital database of images.

Exhibitions

Since its opening, MoMu has organised a continuous programme of exhibitions. Centred around specific themes or designers, these exhibitions create a narrative of the cultural and historical significance of fashion. To achieve this, a designer's sources of inspiration, works from other disciplines, and many other forms of information are displayed alongside articles of clothing. MoMu works closely with designers and their teams to develop their exhibition concepts. MoMu's exhibitions have also travelled to Paris, Stockholm, London, Tokyo, Munich, Istanbul, Enschede and Melbourne.

After an extensive three-year renovation ending in September 2021, MoMu opened two new exhibition spaces; one to display its permanent collection, and a second temporary exhibition space.

Overview of past and present exhibitions.

In addition to the Permanent Collection display, which permanently rotates, MoMu hosts thematic temporary exhibitions, which can be seen in the following table, as well as on MoMu's online exhibition archive.

Exhibition Start Date End Date Backstage: Selection I 21/09/2002 04/04/2003 Patterns 24/04/2003 10/08/2003 GenovanversaeviceversA 09/09/2003 28/03/2004 Goddess 08/05/2004 22/08/2004 Malign Muses 18/09/2004 30/01/2005 Beyond Desire 25/02/2005 18/08/2005 Katharina Prospekt: The Russians by A.F. Vandevorst 09/09/2005 05/02/2006 Yohji Yamamoto Dream Shop 07/03/2006 13/08/2006 The MoMu Collection: Selection II 08/09/2006 17/06/2007 6+ Antwerp Fashion 25/01/2007 23/06/2007 Bernhard Willhelm: Het Totaal Rappel 13/07/2007 10/02/2008 Moi, VERONIQUE BRANQUINHO TOuTe Nue 12/03/2008 17/08/2008 Maison Martin Margiela '20' The Exhibition 12/09/2008 08/02/2009 Paper Fashion! 06/03/2009 16/08/2009 Delvaux: 180 Years of Belgian Luxury 17/09/2009 21/02/2010 Black: Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume 17/09/2009 21/02/2010 Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion 08/09/2010 13/02/2011 Unravel: Knitwear in Fashion 16/03/2011 14/08/2011 Walter Van Beirendonck: Dream The World Awake 14/09/2011 19/02/2012 Living Fashion: Women's Daily Wear 1750–1950 from the Jacoba de Jonge Collection. 21/03/2012 12/08/2012 Madame Grès: Sculptural Fashion 12/09/2012 10/02/2013 Silks & Prints from the Abraham Archive: Couture in Colour 13/03/2013 11/08/2013 Happy Birthday Dear Academie! 08/09/2013 13/02/2014 Birds of Paradise: Plumes & Feathers in Fashion 20/03/2014 24/08/2014 MoMu Now: Contemporary Fashion from the MoMu Collection 25/09/2014 04/01/2015 Dries Van Noten: Inspirations 12/02/2015 19/07/2015 Footprint: The Tracks of Shoes in Fashion 03/09/2015 14/02/2016 Game Changers: Reinventing the 20th Century Silhouette 18/03/2016 14/08/2016 Rik Wouters & The Private Utopia 17/09/2016 26/02/2017 Margiela, The Hermès Years 31/03/2017 27/08/2017 Olivier Theyskens - She Walks in Beauty 12/10/2017 15/04/2018 Soft? Tactile Dialogues 28/09/2018 24/02/2019 Textile as Resistance: Billboards in the city 31/08/2020 21/09/2020 2021 RE-OPENING E/MOTION. Fashion in Transition 04/09/2021 23/01/2022 P.LACE.S - Looking through Antwerp Lace 25/09/2021 09/01/2022 MIRROR MIRROR - Fashion & the Psyche 08/10/2022 05/02/2023 Exploding Fashion: From 2D to 3D to 3D Animation 08/10/2022 05/02/2023 Geometrically Wired. IO Van Oostveldt: Between Clothing and Art 25/02/2023 30/07/2023 Man Ray and Fashion 22/04/2023 13/08/2023 ECHO. Wrapped in Memory 14/10/2023 25/02/2024 Baloji Augurism. 21/10/2023 16/06/2024 WILLY VANDERPERRE prints, films, a rave and more... 27/04/2024 04/08/2024 MoMu x Fashion Department 29/06/2024 10/11/2024 Masquerade, Make-up & Ensor 28/09/2024 02/02/2025 JAN-JAN VAN ESSCHE - KHAYAL 17/12/2024 15/06/2025 Fashion & Interiors. A Gendered Affair. 29/03/2025 03/08/2025 RESOLUCIÓN: On lifetime decisions in Spanish cinema 12/07/2025 23/11/2025 GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between 27/09/2025 01/02/2026 Embroidering Palestine 13/12/2025 07/06/2026 The Antwerp Six 20/03/2026 17/01/2027

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