Deconstructing Belgian and Dutch Fashion Dreams: From Global Trends to Local Crafts

Abstract

During the 1990s, both Belgium and the Netherlands built up a name in the international fashion world. This article, which takes the Belgian success as its starting point to explore the less-known Dutch case, discusses what is meant by Dutch and Belgian fashion. A comparison of the history of fashion and clothing culture of the two countries—which border each other and in places speak the same language—reveals many similarities. For a long time both countries were influenced by Paris fashion. The proximity to Paris connected the Belgian clothing and textile industry to French couture, whereas the Netherlands was more reticent. Historically the Netherlands has had its own style with regard to clothing since the seventeenth century, and in the nineteenth century, this resulted in a flourishing culture of regional clothing, which is still worn in some parts of the Netherlands. In the 1980s, the Belgian government took its first initiatives to support young fashion talent. In 1988 this was followed by similar support on the part of the Dutch government. But whereas Belgium supported fashion designers through financial incentives for the textile and clothing industry, the Netherlands made fashion designers eligible for “art grants.” The different approaches of the two countries in the 1980s had an influence on the outcome. On the one hand the Belgian designers were commercially more successful and became known worldwide in the field of fashion, while the Dutch were left behind. On the other hand they can also be related to the different background and fashion culture at the time. From different historical and industrial backgrounds the Belgian and the Dutch fashion cultures build up different concepts of “national identity” in fashion.

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