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| Photo Johannes Vande Voorde |
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| Photo Jacques Sonck |
Now:
ModeNatie is situated right in the heart of Antwerp’s fashion district and houses the Flanders Fashion Institute, the fashion museum ‘MoMu’ of the province of Antwerp, the library of MoMu and the Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Artesis Hogeschool Antwerp.
ModeNatie is a unique concept where creativity, dynamics and passion for fashion are spread by all his inhabitants.
It offers a forum for debate, confrontation and reflection, a platform for students and designers and is at the same time a nice place to meet.
2002:
The building was ready as of May and Forum organised its first events. Also in the month of May, the offices of the Flanders Fashion Institute moved to ModeNatie. The Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Artesis Hogeschool Antwerp moved into the building during the summer holiday, to start the academic year 2002-2003 in the new quarters.
On 21st of September, the new fashion museum MoMu of the province of Antwerp opened its doors with a big festival.
2001 – May 2001:
On the morning of 17th May 2001, Antwerp woke up to the sight of a fluorescent yellow surface on the façade of ModeNatie. This was the herald of the fashion event MODE 2001 LANDED GELAND, created under the aegis of the Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck. In the course of the following four months, the coloured fields and flower beds were to be conspicuous throughout the city, emphasizing the event. The B-architects were put in charge of integrating them fittingly into the urban landscape.
In December Copyright Bookshop was the first concern to open its doors in the new building.
 Photo : Koen Van Damme/Archive Vincent Van Duysen Architects |
 © Promotie Antwerpen Open vzw - Photo : Wim Wauman |
1997 - 2000:
At the end of 1997, the city of Antwerp allocated the building to the Flanders Fashion Institute. It was as a result of this that the FFI’s concept of the foundation of a new international fashion centre finally took shape. From 1998 onwards, the building was regularly used as a promotional showcase for events and exhibitions organised by the FFI, such as Vitrine, Fashion For Van Dyck (during the Antwerp Van Dyck year 1999),…
In 1999, Marie-José van Hee, the Ghent architect, was approached to undertake the renovation works at ModeNatie.
During Vitrine in 2000, the building was hung with large canvasses showing designs by various Antwerp designers. Also in 2000, the ground floor of the building was used by graduating students of the Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to exhibit their designs.
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 Photos: Mich Verbeelen/Archive Triquetra Communications |
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| Beschermde Werkplaats Photo Archive FFI |
1965 – 1990:
In the mid-sixties EBES (formerly ‘De Schelde’)
sold the buildings to the city of Antwerp.
The workshops and the offices of the
Beschermde Werkplaats (Sheltered Workplace),
a social institution founded by the city of Antwerp,
were moved into the building.
1919-1960:
The ‘New England’ haberdashery was completely taken over by the offices of the association of war invalids and a currency exchange. Also the gas and electricity supplier Compagnie de l’Eléctricité de l’Escaut (De Schelde) leased premises in the building. Their administrative services and a showroom for electric fittings housed in the building. At the time the Antwerp population called the building simply ‘Den Ellentrik’. In 1950, the offices of the IMEA radio distribution company also moved there.
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1908-1910:
During this period the ‘Compagnie Générale Coöpérative Charbonnière’ was joined by 28 other firms who established themselves around and above the ‘New England’ haberdashery. In 1910 the premises were enlarged.
1894 – 1908:
The haberdasher Pierre Einmahl moved his fashion business from the Meir to the new building in Nationalestraat. On the ground floor, he opened his store and called it ‘New England’, an outlet of ready-to-wear clothes for boys and gentlemen.
A certain A. Bardelli started a luxury hotel, the ‘Hotel Central’, in the building.
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1893:
Alphonse Van De Put purchased from Hubert Pierquin the parcel of land that was created by the widening of the Boeksteeg. He wanted to turn it into a building complex of leased premises. The plans were drawn up by architect Ernest Dieltiens. Dieltiens was also responsible for the construction of the Church of St Norbertus in Antwerp. Besides of being an architect, he also taught at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
1876 – 1884:
On 31st October, Antwerp city council commissioned the Parisian contractor Hubert Pierquin to start drastic demolition work in the Boeksteeg. This resulted in the creation of a Paris-type boulevard measuring 15 m wide and 700 m long, which extended from the Ijzerenwaag all the way up to the Groenplaats. And so the Nationalestraat was born. This street was meant to connect the Groenplaats with a totally new district in the southern part of the city. The South was to become an area modelled on Parisian neighbourhoods with many wide streets lined with patrician mansions. In 1884, what remained of the small Ijzerenwaag square was graced by the statue of the Belgian poet Theodoor Van Rijswijck.
19th century:
In the 19th century, the Nationalestraat was still called Boeksteeg and the Drukkerijstraat was known as the Voddenstraat. The Boeksteeg or Bucsteeg, one of the longest streets in Antwerp, ran from the Ijzerenwaag all the way to the Kronenburgstraat and behind each side lay a maze of lanes and doorways. Only one tavern with the former street name (in the present Nationalestraat) still recalls those distant days.