Dirk Bikkembergs
About
the designers
Dirk Bikkembergs was born on January 2, 1959 in Bonn, Germany. After his high school career, Dirk Bikkembergs was interested to attend law school but eventually decided to start studying at the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Belgium. In 1982 Bikkembergs graduated, together with "The Six", other Belgian designers Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck and Martin Margiela.
After his studies, Bikkembergs started working for Belgian fashion designers to earn himself some experience.
1985 was the year of Bikkembergs' breakthrough as he won the influential Golden Spindle award for Best Young Designer in Fashion. Due to the publicity he received by winning this award, Dirk Bikkembergs received the opportunity by a Belgian shoe company named Monarca to create his own shoe line for men.
His very first collection, which consisted entirely out of shoes, was launched the next year in 1986. Finally in 1989 his first ready-to-wear men’s collection arose, followed four years later by the female equivalent. This collection was the first Italian produced Bikkembergs' Collection.
Dirk's quality collections and rising popularity gave him the opportunity to become more and more self-reliant. The partnership helped Dirk successfully establish in 1992 his women’s line.
For the next five years his shows grew and market size widened enough to warrant introducing an alternative line. Bikkembergs (white label) was soon introduced to the market, a collection which addresses a wider market.
Since 1987 Dirk’s perfect vision of a man has been one in a white t-shirt, ‘501’ jeans and simple trainers. A pair of jeans in particular have always been one of his goals, the ultimate challenge, something he felt should be kept until he believed he had enough expertise, resources and confidence. Only recently did he feel ready to invest all his efforts and experience into the project.
At the Pitti Uomo Trade Fair in Florence Italy, where he was a special guest in June 2000, Dirk launched a new collection: Bikkembergs Jeans and Street wear (red label). Central to the launch was the G8 jean.
Dirk has spent the last 15 years modelling a creative spirit. At the start of 2000 Dirk extracted one drop from all the work done in the past to be as concise as he could be. Dirk sees not just a new range of clothes but a genuinely new philosophy to bring clothes close to their purest form: garments without any relation to fashion terms, seasons, or even time. His clothes and shoes are a statement which will not fade after six months, but which will endure for years. The extracted drop will start a new era of purity, a renaissance, a cleansing process or re-prioritising.
the label
The Brand encompasses three separate lines, each offering clothing, footwear and accessories.
The Dirk Bikkembergs black label collection embodies the values expressed in Dirk’s work as a whole: health in mind and body, but at a more exclusive level. The mix of futuristic technology and artisan handwork defines.
The second line known simply as Bikkembergs white label collection, was originally conceived (1996) as a response to market demand for more basic and more accessible styles in relation to the first line. It hat since evolved into a full diffusion line, which can be described as casual city wear with a distinctive fashion edge.
Bikkembergs Sport as a distinct line was officially launched for the spring summer 2004 season, although Dirk had developed the Sport motif and had experimented with a football concept within other lines as early as 1999.
Bikkembergs was later recognised as one of the original ‘Antwerp Six’. The son of army partes , Bikkembergs gained valuable.
The Look
Dirk Bikkembergs try to illustrate that the masculine strength in men also exists in women. The women stripped away any macho elements from the men’s collection and illustrated that the men’s strength becomes one of sexiness, power and confidence when translated for women. For the first shows the women joined the man on the stage and walked together, even wearing essentially the same garment but with a fit for women. Macho strength manifests itself into sexy power for women with their identity and femininity maintained, indeed strengthened. The collection, Bikkembergs (white label), inherits the very essence of ‘Dirk Bikkembergs’, with the same strength, character and performance. A parallel collection of timeless recognisable signature pieces defined through Dirk’s vision of cut and innovative use of fabrics. From the beginning it has never been perceived as a second line and it has a distinctive personality on its own. It is more relaxed and less designed. It is a more accessible collection of alternative, simplified, basic and technical pieces which are made to precise standards with attention to a quality finish and casual detail. The person who wears ‘Dirk Bikkembergs’ should also wear ‘Bikkembergs’. It is the same man. A ‘Bikkembergs’ t-shirt under a ‘Dirk Bikkembergs’ jacket. ‘Dirk Bikkembergs’ provides the roots and everything else branches out from there. In his red label dirk had spent much of the previous two years sculpting and diligently refining a pair of denims. The result is a pair of jeans that are strikingly human, in contrast with the irrevocably industrial feel of the last decade of denim. This human aspect has always been an obsession for jeans designers but somehow they always managed to miss the point: from stone washed to industrial-soiled, manufacturing has been aimed solely at recreating the ‘used’ quality, but the essence of a used pair of jeans can’t be copied. Dirk has given his jeans a body and soul, a skin and a history. Dirk has now made his message clear. By proving he can make innovative clothes in a uniquely structured shape. By being so assured with the man he wishes to dress, Dirk’s collections have always been strong, vivid and liberal, almost elaborate, but this creative generosity helped make his message clear, there was no water in the wine.