Welcome to ModeNatie

CONCEPT

Antwerp is familiar with the word ‘natie’: it is part of its harbour culture.  ‘Natie’ is a Flemish word for warehousing company: a company entrusted with the weighing, sorting, loading and unloading, storing, stocking and forwarding of goods.  It can also refer to the warehouse itself.  (Van Dale dictionary)

Warehouses in the dock area bear witness to the important role that Antwerp and its harbour have played for many centuries.  Examples of this are the so-called Katoen Natie and Hessenatie.  ModeNatie sustains this tradition.  It symbolizes everything that is related to the anchoring of fashion in Antwerp as well as its place in and its appearance towards the international world of fashion. 

ModeNatie accommodates several partners: the Fashion Museum of the Province of Antwerp (MoMu), the Flanders Fashion Institute (FFI), the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Artesis Hogeschool Antwerp and Copyright Bookshop.

ARCHITECTURE

The building in which ModeNatie is housed, goes back to the 19th century and was originally designed as a storehouse for the men’s and children’s clothing company New England.  In the course of the 20th century it changed ownership several times.  In 2000 it was decided that the premises be thoroughly renovated under the leadership of the Ghent architect Marie-José Van Hee.  Van Hee’s main intervention was to build a covered passageway that runs straight across a triangular patio and through which the natural light is dispersed on to the ground floor.  Van Hee also built a new, wooden staircase, which she has called a second, vertical passage in the building.  Both the patio and the staircase are entirely covered in merbau wood.