Niels Peeraer – The lotus and the snake, the curse of the white fox

Description ilovebelgium

You’re born with talent, without any doubt. One day your talent will come out whether you’re 6 or 60. Belgian designer Niels Peeraer’s talent showed really quickly. At 18 he went to the Fashion Department at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, where he obtained his Master degree in June 2011. His Master collection guess technology isn’t ready for pancake teleportation, which included a limited edition of handbags, made with the collaboration of Delvaux, won 5 awards and was exhibited at the fashion museum MOMU in Antwerp. Not bad for an 22-year old no?

Niels is currently based in Paris (let’s admit it, still the fashion capital of the world). His leather accessories are mostly made out of natural colored cow’s leather in combination with metal pieces, carefully crafted but still with the intention to celebrate the natural beauty and strength of the leather. The roughness of the material mixed with the light heartedness of the designs.

His Fall-Winter 2012 collection  The lotus and the snake, the curse of the white fox, reflects the will of two youngsters wanting to protect their family crest and traditions. The accessory collection is very recognizable since everything is made of  the same vegetable tanned bridle leather with brass fittings. It does not only has hand bags but also bracelets, necklaces and even hat pieces. All with the signature super cute Niels Peeraer touch. Classics in the making.

Ray Gilles, The Forgotten Illustrator

Description ilovebelgium

Although we love our illustrators, established names even have a museum, sometimes one falls into oblivion. That’s why it’s up to the I Love Belgium team to re-establish a forgotten talent. Ray Gilles is one of those cartoonists that were active in Belgium in the 1960′s, but whose name seems to have faded in the mists of time.

Ray used a very detailed, almost precocious style: thin lines with heavy swatches of black, quite often combined with clip art and other cuttings. This style led to expositions in Brussels, Antwerp and Liège and collective shows in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Mechelen, Molanwelz and Milan.

In 1961 he debuted with his cartoons on the Flemish Humour Festival. He was asked to design a carpet for the Belgian Ministery of Economic Affairs and won the Prix La Métropole for young Antwerp painters.  He contributed to magazines and periodicals like Tijd en Mens, Bouwen en Wonen, Summier, Art Abstrait and Kontrast.

Cartoons by Ray Gilles were published in De Standaard, and he also designed books and magzines and theatre posters.  His work was regularly published in Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.  Gebrauchsgraphik showcased his art, and Swiss magazines heralded him as “a master of graphical humour”.

He was married to Stella van der Auwera, an abstract painter, fabric designer and teacher at the academy of Mechelen. Sadly enough, paintings and drawings got lost, were stolen or ended up in the bin. Our Belgian museum don’t have works of this (commercial) mastermind and the ones left are in private collections. Still, online Ray Gilles can be reborn as an artistic mastermind!

© I love Belgium

Polynesian and Escher Inspired Tattoos

Description illusionscene360

Belgium artist Vincent Hocquet has an interesting tattoo technique that looks like pointillism and watercolor painting. His designs include three-dimensional and geometrical shapes, organic patterns, and optical illusions.

A Visit To Villa Empain

Description ilovebelgium

The recently renovated Villa Empain is certainly one of the most beautiful architectural masterpieces of Art Deco in Brussels. In 1930, at the age of 21, Baron Louis Empain had this private mansion of 2500 square meters built, on the prestigious Franklin Roosevelt Avenue. It is to the Swiss architect Michel Polak, that this splendid mansion is entrusted to. Michel Polak is already well known in Belgium: one of his major works consisted of the famous “Residence Palace” (1928) and the institute George Eastman in the Leopold Parc (the future Museum of Europe).

The project conceived  on a property of 55 acres includes a monumental villa with four granite polished facades, a garden surrounding a decorated swimming pool of pergola and a caretaker’s lodge. The modern and luxurious character of this construction generated enthusiasm and curiosity. It is true that the diversity and the quality of the materials used (marble, polished granite, bronzes, wrought iron, glasses and precious woods), the refinement of the details and the coherence of the whole imposing simple lines has contributed from the start to its patrimonial value.

Great Art lover, Louis Empain donated the property to the Belgian State in 1937, with the intention of creating a museum of decorative and contemporary art. Unfortunately this project was not carried out till after few years under the direction of La Cambre School of Arts. In 1943, the German army requisitioned the villa and occupied it until the end of the war. Thereafter it sheltered the allied armies and as well as the embassy of the USSR and did not fulfill the functions for which it was offered to the Belgian State. Considering that the latter had not honored its engagement, Louis Empain recovered his property in the beginning of the sixties before reselling it in 1973.

Since the beginning of the years 1990, the building remained practically unoccupied and left in a state of minimal maintenance. Fortunately, its recent acquisition by the Boghossian Foundation makes it possible to consider its future in an optimistic way. Its approved classification by the Government of Brussels-Capital Region in March 2007 and its future assignment into a center of dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West guarantees indeed the revival of this splendid house.

The I Love Belgium team sighs, thinking of the many visits we will pay to this extraordinary place in 2012. Sipping our glass of wine before the pool of the Villa after a walk in the Bois de la Cambre, knowing that nice exhibitions are waiting for us!

The Return Of The Smets Family

Description ilovebelgium

The brand new ‘Smets’ concept store (or should we say luxury shopping mall) is a fact in Brussels. Found by half Luxembourg, half Belgian family Smets. A brand new and unique 3800 square meters building that breaths luxury, where fashion, design, beauty and fine dining are brought together. The building is placed in the outskirts of Brussels, but hey, someone has to start regenerating those neighbourhoods.

The story started in Luxembourg, but the owners have Belgian roots. Luxembourg born Carine studied biologics in the Belgian student city Leuven, where she met her Antwerp born husband Thierry Smets. After her studies Carine and Thierry moved back to Luxembourg. This is where Carine opened her first Smets boutique a long time ago, in 1986. The next following 26 Smets stores in Luxembourg made Smets a national hero. Only now the Smets family decided it was time to introduce Smets to Belgium with a project of measure: a high-end shopping mall.

The building breaths luxury, as it is filled with tons of luxury goods. They chose the Brussels based architect studio Zoom to design the architecture and interior of the store. They turned the store into a striking grey building, the front façade is embellished with a fashionable ledlight animation by artist Julian Opie and a single huge window filled with one mannequin breathing exclusivity. The interior is very spacious in which the star shaped fitting rooms are real showpieces.

So if you’re in need for some late x-mas or New Years eve shopping this is the place to be! Pick up your basket and start filling it with Belgian labels such as Theyskens Theory or Baobab Collection design candles. Or you go international with Burberry Prorsum, Comme des Garçons, Givenchy, Alexandrer Wang, Isabel Marant and design pieces of Vitra, Moroso, Artemide!

Hell’o Monsters : The End of Magic

Description trendland

Hell’O Monsters is a Belgian collective formed by Jérôme Meynen, François Dieltiens and Antoine Detaille . The three artists successfully blend their individual styles to create an imaginary universe occupied by hybrid characters such as monsters with multiple eyes, mutated animals, humans with their heads split open. These figures manage to grab our attention and gain our affection despite their revolting appearance. The group’s creations, despite their colorful and happy look, are in fact caustic commentaries on the adult world, human nature and society.

See all the pieces from their most recent exhibition at MOHS Exhibit in Copenhagen, here.

Vieilles peaux by Piece of Chic

Description ilovebelgium

This is not a fur dress, it ’s not fake fur, it ’s a print! Vieilles Peaux is the second collection of the young and fresh graphic design studio, Piece Of Chic. This is a collection of simple shaped silk dresses with a fur pattern printed on, lifting up the dress to another level.

Barbara Répole and Sebastien Pescarollo founded Piece Of Chic in 2010, and already took us by surprise last year with their first collection of the chic ‘Magik Fritkot’ dresses. These same cut dresses were inspired on Belgian fries, as we like them best, and gave another (romantic and colourful) view on Belgian junk food.

Piece Of Chic is a graphic design studio focussed on textile prints for prêt-à-porter and home design. If they can make French fries and (not even) fake fur look so beautiful, it must mean they have an eye for unknown beauty. Just a look at their tumblr is enough to say that have a unique view on patterns, colours and shapes.

The Tigra Girl

Description ilovebelgium

The only Belgium Pin Up Girl, portrayed by an American, was actually Latvian. A good beginning for a story that ends with murder.  The Latvian born, but Antwerp based Angelina Saey modelled in the early fifties in front of the highly praised pin-up illustrator Al Moore. Her cheeky grin would become iconic for the Tigra cigarette packaging.

An attractive woman to represent a cigarette brand was nothing new. Paula Bollaert already modelled in 1925 for the extremely popular Belga brand. It was partly because of her praising that Angelina was chosen by cigarette producer Van der Elst as the new face of the Tigra brand.

Although The Tigra Girl  became a Belgian icon, it wasn’t until she got murdered in 1979 that the name Angelina Saey reappeared again. It was on a spring day that the 46-year-old was found murdered in her exuberant villa. Her husband and two sons discovered the body of Angelina in a big puddle of blood and with a knotted cord around her neck. It took two autopsies to conlude that this suicide was actually a brutal assassination.

Until today this murder stays unsolved. Until today Angelina is on the Tigra packaging, forever immortal.

Smoking Kids

Description ilovebelgium

Titled “The beauty of an ugly addiction”, photographer Frieke Janssens confronts viewers with questions about the general smoking ban introduced in Belgium some months ago. Surrealistic, melancholic and theatrical but especially controversial pictures of smoking kids are used to visualise the contradiction of the unhealthy cigarette and the immense attraction of smoking.

The children, aged four to nine, are shameless posing while enjoying their cigarette or cigarillo. So why kids? By portraying adults as children all  the attention went to the smoking. An adult would draw to much attention to the portrayed person. Thus these portraits evoke question such as: is the smoking ban the right way to get rid of an absurd addiction and are smokers treated like little kids who can’t make the difference between good and bad? While Frieke doesn’t give answers, the portraits are strong enough to start your thinking process!

Frieke got the idea after seeing a youtube movie in which a two year old Indonesian boy smokes up to 40 cigarettes a day. It struck her that the reactions on this youthfull smoker were culturally stipulated: Americans reacted shocked while Indonesians and the parents of the little boy saw the smoking habit as something normal.

So what’s your opinion? P.S. the cigarettes used in the photo shoot were made out of cheese.

See the full series here.

The Animated gif exhibition

Description crapisgood

Last thursday the opening of ‘The animated Gif exhibition’ took place in Antwerp. It was a nice evening with lots of people, short conversations, a band, finger food and drinks, some speeches and a lot of gifs. Crap = Good presented the ‘Animated gif player’, a device, like its name suggests, capable of playing .gif file formats.

An animated gif is a digital file format where multiple images are being looped after each other, creating a short and small sized movie clip. The file type was first introduced in 1987 as a first online movie, but soon lost its function with the increasing speed of internet and the possibility to upload longer and bigger movies. The document type however has gained back some of its popularity and is even entering the field of Art today. In 1832, Jozeph Plateau, a Belgian physicist invented the phenakistiscope. The first device which was able to show a moving image and which is considered to be the pre-runner of modern cinema. The only down part however was the fact that it could only show short movie clips in a loop. An animated gif is exactly that, and after some research on Plateau’s original design, Pieterjan Grandry succeeded to build a device capable of playing animated gifs, incorporating led lights, microchips and magnetic sensors. The Gif player is a wooden box, much like a turntable, with a dimmer to adjust the speed of the animation and a small looking hole in the front.

On the exposition all of the submissions where beamed on a wall, and the 20 best ones you have voted for got printed on round discs, ready to be played by the gif player. All the images, of the machine and the opening at read more!

DELTA “Abundance” Exhibition @ Alice Gallery

Raf Simons’ home in Belgium

Description hypebeast

Raf Simons, the designer behind the Raf Simons and Jil Sander brands, recently opened the doors to his home in Antwerp, Belgium to the Wall Street Journal. The elegant apartment was built in 1968 and has a wenge-wood floating staircase, built-in cabinets and floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass windows. Furniture is the point of interest around the apartment with a Pierre Jeanneret couch and chairs in the living room originally made in the ’50s for public buildings in Chandigarh, India, a low Chapo coffee table, a Ron Arad “Rolling Volume” chair and various George Nakashima originals, including a conoid bench, woven lounge chair and rare dining-room table with five asymmetrical legs. Although Simons is considering moving to Berlin or New York,  Simons says ”In this business, I know I could work somewhere else one day, but I’ll always keep this apartment.” Read the full article over at the WSJ