Ten promising designers recently moved into the ateliers of MAD Brussels incubator, the Brussels centre for fashion and design. In addition to their own studio and workplace, they will be intensively coached and supported over the next two years in order to face the many challenges of the fashion and design sector.
From jewellery and fragrance design to modular design and lightning. Five fashion and five design entrepreneurs were chosen by a jury and based on their economic potential, creative richness and social value of their project. The five new fashion residents are Aurelie Defez, Louise Huyghe, Valérie Shangina, Eunji Oh and Chloé Ucedo. For design, PaulineplusLuis, Stan Vrebos, Antoine Guitou, Louise Verstraete and Anna Touvron were selected.
The five fashion residents
Eunji Oh is an accessories designer of Belgian-Korean origin. Her collection of leather goods consists mainly of eye-catching handbags inspired by the human body and its accompanying body folds. Although she focuses on the fragility of the human body in her work, a touch of humour and self-relativity is never far away.
Aurelie Defez is a fashion designer and graphic designer. Central to her work is the ‘meme’, which for Aurélie acts both as a narrative tool and a critical lens on contemporary society. The designer creates garments that critique contemporary luxury consumption.
Louise Huyghe is a fragrance and jewellery designer. Scents evoke emotions and memories, and Louise wants to explore these further with her accessories. She designs jewellery with specific scents. This allows the wearer to carry associated memories close to the heart.
During the two-year residency, Valérie Shangina aims to set up Renue, a clothing rental platform. Sensitive to current trends and highly aware of environmental issues, Valerie wants Renue to respond to the pernicious influence of fast fashion and encourage conscious consumption. With rental options ranging from 24 hours to 30 days, users get access to women’s collections, from affordable garments to vintage designer items.
In the world of UCEDO, Chloe Ucedo‘s jewellery label, the Madonna becomes a black woman and cherubs exchange their cloaks for latex bodysuits. With this artistic approach and by questioning the origin of materials and cultural appropriation, Chloe aims to decolonise fine jewellery.
The five design residents
Pauline Capdo and Luis Bellenger are a Brussels-based designer duo called Paulineplusluis who focus mainly on lighting design. They use straightforward, understated and affordable materials, often borrowed from other disciplines that are reused in unexpected ways. One example is the Néon collection, made from cables and wires from the construction industry. Paulineplusluis was also named Designer of the Year 2024.
Scenographer Stan Vrebos developed his own project called Constant. He designs custom-made and 3D-printed connecting pieces. These pieces are produced locally and can be used in combination with rented building materials. In this way, he aims to offer a sustainable solution for any temporary structure and encourage the rational reuse of materials.
Antoine Guitou is a versatile textile designer who founded his own brand Chateau Resort. Chateau Resort specialises in custom-made, visual elements such as landscape curtains, textiles and scenography. Antoine is mainly known for his landscape curtains made from various net curtains, in the style of stained-glass windows.
Louise Verstraete is a visual artist and textile designer. Her multidisciplinary approach encompasses photography, scenography, performance and textiles. Louise creates a living archive, The Island of Images, consisting of photography, urban scenography and textiles. From this, she explores the boundaries of textiles and translates her photographs of urban spaces, such as graffiti, posters and typographic compositions, into textiles.
Anna Tou is a ceramicist with a background in lettering design. Anna creates pieces with graphic, organic and vibrant shapes. Each design has a different look, relief and size, characteristic of handmade craftsmanship. Her ceramic art is an homage to the material and draws on the natural properties of clay.
The MAD Incubator is a programme to support the Brussels fashion and design sector
The MAD Incubator is a programme to support the Brussels fashion and design sector and is an essential and important part of MAD Brussels. MAD aims to help young designers who want to take up the current challenges of the fashion and design sector. It not only supports designers by offering them a place to stay and create for two years, but also offers them a tailor-made coaching programme with workshops by experts, contacts with local and international stakeholders, and exchanges with social and sustainable entrepreneurs. The MAD Incubator, in the city centre, accommodates a total of 10 designers.
Source: MAD Brussels
