Belgian fashion designer Walter van Beirendonck is retiring from the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, media Gazet van Antwerpen and VRT NWS report. Van Beirendonck was head of the fashion department for 15 years and will retire at the end of June.
Van Beirendonck had worked at the academy for much longer. He started as a lecturer in the fashion department in 1985 and was appointed head of the department in 2007.
“I look back on 37 years of creativity and I am very proud of what we have achieved,” the designer told Gazet van Antwerpen. “Together with the teaching team, we put the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp on the world map set and young fashion talents given a platform with the year-end show.
Walter van Beirendonck quits at the Antwerp Fashion Academy, his own label continues
Van Beirendonck will say goodbye during the end-of-year fashion show on June 3rd and 4th. A successor to the department head has not yet been named.
The fashion designer himself is also a graduate of the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He graduated in 1980 and became a member of the Antwerp Six, a group of prominent Belgian designers. The group consists of Dirk van Saene, Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Marina Yee, Dirk Bikkembergs and Walter van Beirendonck.
The Fashion Academy in Antwerp has produced many other famous fashion designers. It not only produced the Antwerp Six, but also Raf Simons, Kriss van Assche, Veronique Branquinho, Glenn Martens, Rushemy Botter and Meryll Rogge.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.