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volume 02 — issue 06 

Neighbourhood Life +Global Style 

Belgium Big Consoles Lifestyle Techno Techno Techno Fashion Mason’s Apprentice 

Design Studio Job Are Older Than Jesus Culture Boy Guards + The Bling Special

WWW.ESSENTIEL.BE 

MATHIAS SCHOENAERTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHEL DE WINDT

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6 

The Word Magazine Is 

Nicholas Lewis 

Benoît Berben 

Editor-in-chief 

Hettie Judah 

Design 

Face to Face 

+ pleaseletmedesign 

Photography/Illustration 

Benoît Banisse 

Jean Biche 

Ulrike Biets 

Pierre-Philippe Duchâtelet 

Sarah Eechaut 

Vincent Fournier 

Sarah Michielsen 

Opération Panda 

Yassin Serghini 

Guy Van Laere 

Writers 

Alex Deforce 

Rozan Jongstra 

Hettie Judah 

Nicholas Lewis 

Yves van Kerkhove 

Randa Wazen 

Thank Yous 

Veerle Frissen 

Melisande McBurnie 

Irena Petkovic 

Virginie Van de Casteele 

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EDITOR’S LETTER THE FIRSTS 

‘US’ is a word that gets used a great deal in The Word offi ces – as in “I think 

you’ll like her – she’s very ‘us’ ”. We’ve never sat down and defi ned what US 

really signifi es, but I guess it’s understood that we’re talking about someone with 

a creative, interestingly skewed vision, a risk taker, an arguer, someone on the 

move, hungry for experiences. The baseline for US, however, is something that 

we sometimes refer to as a new internationalism: not the international vision that 

comes from being a business traveller, rather it's a worldview that seems to come 

hand in hand with an interesting, mixed up heritage. 

Asking The Word team to think about heritage, then, was always going to 

produce a fair few surprises. Thinking about heritage tourism, we ended up 

looking at the way the music industry simultaneously cannibalises its own infl uences, 

then attempts to resurrect crumbly old cult bands and push them back 

onto the touring circuit. And we took a daytrip down to Charleroi, and looked 

into the bleak roots of the city’s even bleaker present. 

Heritage can be as much of a burden as it is a blessing – particularly if you grow 

up in the shadow of the family business. We talked with a group of entrepreneurs 

about how they balanced the weight of expectation against their desire to strike 

out on their own, and asked whether having a background in the business really 

gives you a head start? 

Much as some of us may want to forget about our roots, the one part of our heritage 

we can never escape is the physical manifestation of it that stares back at us from 

the mirror every morning. After years spent trying to chart the diaspora back along 

our own faces, it’s been interesting to get an insight into the various international 

ancestors that lent features to some other very distinctive faces around us. 

There’s nothing like a baptism by fi re – my fi rst issue as editor in chief is also the 

fi rst issue where we’ve experimented with taking the magazine monthly. My rookie 

errors have all been committed precisely when the rest of the team has been slamming 

hard up against our tightest ever deadlines. Not ideal – sorry guys! I’ve probably 

had to lean on Nicholas through the transition period rather more than he 

expected, but I’m hoping that this month has set the form for us working as a really 

good team in the future. As I said to him when we fi rst talked about me taking over 

as editor – I’m not interested in a dictatorship. The Word is defi nitely ‘us’. 

Hettie Judah 

© Kris De Smedt 

On this cover 

Trace your line 

The Word is published six times a year by JamPublishing, 107 Rue Général Henry Straat 1040 Brussels Belgium. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without prior permission is strictly prohibited. 

All information is correct up to the time of going to press. The publishers cannot be held liable for any changes in this respect after this date.

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8 

01. The Firsts 

The Cover The Heritage Issue p01 

Ad Essentiel p02 

Ad Swatch p04 

Editor's Letter Volume 2 – N° o6 p06 

Ad Filippa K p07 

The Contents You're looking at it p08 

Ad Burberry p09 

The Contributors It's a Word's world p10 

Ad Bell & Ross p11 

The Diary Post-its p12 

The Diary Belgium p13 

Ad Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen p15 

The Diary Belgium + United Kingdom p16 

The Diary France + Holland p18 

Ad ING p19 

The Diary Concert picks & other things to do p20 

Ad Cameleon p21 

02. Belgium 

The Heritage Papers Title page p22 

The Heritage Papers The mix to drop p23 

The Heritage Papers Rewind, play, revive p24 

The Heritage Papers Old school kicks p25 

The Heritage Papers Serious baggage + Impressive specs p26 

Ad De Greef p27 

The Guide My guide to superstition p28 

Ad Hoet Design Store p29 

03. Lifestyle 

THE HERITAGE ISSUE THE CONTENTS 

The Business Business genetics p30 

The Institution Drop a coin in the slot p34 

The Local How Belgium beat the dancefl oor… p36 

The Face Off My other car's a Golf p38 

The Trace 2000 years of modern p40 

The Word On Heritage in my face p42 

The Other Word On Console nation p44 

The Trip What is left of industry p48 

The Showstoppers Back in the day p52 

Ad Delvaux p55 

04. Fashion 

The Fashion Word Becoming us p56 

05. The Bling Special 

Ad Kenzo Parfums p66 

The Cover The Bling Special p67 

The Way Adorning men p68 

The Flash Watchmen p72 

The Encounter Show me the gold p74 

The Special Showst… All mine when she shines p76 

Ad The Word Magazine p79 

06. Design 

The History A matter of life and death p80 

07. Culture 

The Shelf Shelf life p84 

The Pencil The lost art p86 

The Talent Tivoli gardens p88 

The Voyage Far east p92 

08. The Lasts 

The Stockists Stockists p95 

The Round Up Advertisers p96 

What's Next The Morning After Issue p98 

Ad Ristorante Bocconi p99 

Ad Rado p100

�� 

� ��

10 

It’s a 

Word’s 

world 

Sebastiaan Van Doninck 

Illustrator 

� 

We met Sebastiaan at a book publisher’s 

party, and when he told 

us that he used to illustrate children’s 

books but his imagination 

had become too dark, something 

went ‘click’ for us, and we knew 

this would be the start of a beautiful 

relationship. He’s inspired 

by music, dusty old museums 

and the movies of Tim Burton – 

which means he fi ts right in. This 

issue, we invited him to do 

a Guide to Superstitions. 

www.sebastiaanvandoninck.be 

— 

Pages n° 28 

THE ORIGINS ISSUE 

© Daniele Tedeschi 

Kris De Smedt 

Photographer 

� 

Getting the right photographer 

for this issue was always going 

to be a tall order: we needed 

someone who was simultaneously 

sensitive to architecture, 

men’s fashion, and could create a 

story with a narrative that fi tted 

with our heritage theme. We 

approached Kris and he just took 

the idea and ran with it, creating 

an exceptionally beautiful menswear 

story against the backdrop 

of a 1930s Masonic temple. Kris 

works with Stephanie Van Maele 

as the Septantesept photographic 

production team. 

www.septantesept.com 

— 

Pages n° 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 

61, 62, 63, 64, 65 

Pierre- Yves Marquer 

Stylist 

� 

The 1930s feel of our fashion 

story required a stylist who 

appreciated rich textures and 

complex combinations of print 

and textile. Pierre-Yves got off the 

Thalys from Paris with a wicked 

sense of humour and armfuls 

of beautiful pieces, including 

vintage accessories from his own 

collection, and borrowed from 

friends in the know. We were so 

inspired by the Cazal frames he 

brought that we ended up writing 

them up in the Papers section. 

He, in turn, was so inspired by 

Brussels that he’s thinking of 

buying a loft here. 

— 

Pages n° 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 

61, 62, 63, 64, 65 

THE CONTRIBUTORS 

Rozan Jongstra 

Writer 

� 

Rozan’s currently juggling three 

jobs, but we like to think that 

her heart is really with us here 

at The Word. She’s happy to 

rise to a challenge and we’re 

always interested to see what 

she’ll make of our project 

proposals. Rozan has a love/ 

hate relationship with writing: 

she hates boring copywriting, 

loves expanding her mind as a 

journalist. This is one writer 

that defi nitely likes being taken 

outside of her comfort zone; just 

how we like them! 

— 

Pages n° 30, 31, 32, 33

A tribute watch to the US 

Airborne paratroopers in 

memory of D-Day 

BR 01 AIRBORNE . 46 mm . Carbon finish steel case . Photoluminescent dial . Automatic movement 

Information and e-boutique: Benelux +32 (0)2 268 79 53 . Europe: +33 (0)1 55 35 36 00 . www.bellross.com

12 THE BLOOD ISSUE 

THE DIARY

The next few weeks’ 

agenda fi llers 

01. Old and new 

� You get a sense, 

when looking at Adrian Ghenie’s 

work, of an artist split between 

two worlds: the past or the 

present, the old or the new, the 

explicit or the abstract. Indeed, 

the painter approaches his 

subject with all the nostalgia 

of old masters, depicting what 

appear to be contemporary 

situations in a decidedly uncontemporary 

fashion. Some 

might say you’d be forgiven 

for thinking that Rembrandt’s 

darker side came back to life and 

decided to make a career out of 

it. The resulting body of work is 

somber and subdued, sometimes 

even unsettling – consider, for 

example, the canvas showing 

Hitler, backed by his German 

Shepherds, watching over what 

seems to be a woman fast asleep. 

Adrian Ghenie 

� Until 16 th January 2010 

☞ Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp 

� www.timvanlaeregallery.com 

02. Gloom 

and doom 

� American photographer 

Debbie Fleming Caffery’s 

lens always seems to be gazing 

rather than full-frontal facing, 

more of a sneak peek than a 

close-up look. With something 

of a feminist streak to her work, 

Fleming Caffery’s photographs 

are gentle yet evocative, indirect 

yet explicit. Before anything 

else though, despite somber 

settings and gloomy situations, 

she always manages to capture 

a luminosity which would 

otherwise have been lost. With 

this exhibition at Brussels’ 

Box Gallery, entitled Timeless 

South, the artist presents a body 

of work close to her heart: the 

South is where she hails from, 

and what she knows best. 

Debbie Fleming Caffery – 

Un Sud Intemporel 


☞ Box Galerie, Brussels 

� www.boxgalerie.be 

03. Boot camp 

� McCorkle’s work 

sits between that of a craftsman 

and a nutty professor. 

His minute attention to detail, 

combined with his ability to see 

subject matters where others 

would merely see everyday life, 

makes for compelling viewing. 

Consider March, his 10 minute 

movie on the Knickerbocker 

Greys, America’s oldest after 

school activity for New York’s 

Manhattan elite. In it, the artist 

takes the necessary distance to 

reveal an unobstructed account 

of one of the country’s oldest 

routines – namely, the disciplining 

of Park Avenue’s rich 

and famous. Contrasting the 

stiffness of the video, McCorkle 

also presents Seven Woods, a 

collection of seven gold-plated 

wooden canes. 

Corey McCorkle 


☞ Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp 

� www.stellalohausgallery.com 

04. Glass candy 

� Glass never ceases 

to amaze, such are the myriads 

of possibilities it provides. And 

this is exactly the premise of 

Artonivo’s exhibition: to celebrate 

the intrinsic versatility of 

this most supple of wares, contextualising 

it within other practices, 

namely ceramics and textile 

design. Drawing on the works 

of experts in the field – from 

Finnish professor Oiva Toikka’s 

Birds collection to Italian artist 

Giorgio Vigna’s schizophrenic 

creations – the showcase attempts 

to inject some youthful exuberance 

into an art form otherwise 

relegated to artisans’ workshops 

and grandma cabinets. Added 

to the mix are works by Belgian 

ceramist Crien Van Looy and 

textile designer Ria Bosman. 

Infinity – The Sky Within Reach 

� From 5 th December 2009 

to 17 th January 2010 

☞ Gallery Artonivo, Bruges 

� www.artonivo.be 

Belgium 

THE FIRSTS 

( 01 → 09 ) 

01. 

02. 

03. 

04. 

13 

© Artonivo Gallery © Stella Lohaus Gallery 

© Debbie Fleming Caffery 

© Tim Van Laere Gallery

©Aeroplastic Contemporary 

© Gallery Fortlaan 17 

© Mekhitar Garabedian © Taché-Lévy Gallery 

14 THE RACE ISSUE 

THE DIARY 

05. 

06. 

07. 

08. 

05. Reflective 

violence 

� Isabelle Lévénez 

acknowledges that her work 

might at times have something of 

a violent streak running through 

it, although she attributes this 

not to an inner violence, but 

rather to the current global state 

of affairs, one she manages to 

translate through her body of 

work. You therefore fi nd an 

extremely somber approach 

(drip-dropping brush strokes 

and vivid, near-murderous 

colours) combined with a compelling 

contemporary narrative 

(animal masks being the most 

recent example). Although fi rst 

impressions might be unsettling, 

a closer look will reveal a world 

of deep-rooted meaning and 

unashamed brashness. 

Isabelle Lévénez - Masques 

� Until 23 rd December 2009 

☞ Aeroplastics, Brussels 

� www.aeroplastics.net 

06. Layer cake 

� Manor Grunwald 

observes, decides, creates and 

then destroys. Taking as a starting 

point the people, cultures 

and realities that surround 

him, the former graffiti artist 

builds upon his observations, 

layer-upon-layer, using textures, 

mazes, patterns and a wide 

palette of colours to confuse and 

conquer, interest and intrigue. 

On an eternal quest to redefine 

the meaning of the canvas as we 

know it, Grunwald’s approach 

is one of trial and error (he is an 

autodidact artist), which some 

might consider “laisser-aller” 

although let this not misguide 

you. His is a well-calculated, 

intuitive and, in the end, 

refreshing body of work. 

Manor Grunwald 


☞ Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent 

� www.fortlaan17.com 

07. L.A miniaturised 

� Oakland-based 

artist Tracey Snelling immortalises 

places, key moments 

and turning points in popular 

American culture through her 

downsized sculptures counting 

tales of a Hollywood of the 

past set in a Hollywood of the 

now. Meant as a soft critique of 

America’s fascination for the big, 

bright and brash, her miniaturised 

renditions of everything 

from liquor stores and sex 

shops to beachfront skyscrapers 

and the ubiquitous highway 

motel offer vivid and impeccably 

produced small bouts of 

Californian reality. This is the 

artist’s second exhibition in 

Brussels and one which we can 

only urge you to catch. 

Tracey Snelling – Greta Garbo 

slept here 

� Until 19 th December 2009 

☞ Taché-Lévy Gallery, Brussels 

� www.tache-levy.com 

08. Tongue ‘n cheek 

� Mekhitar 

Garabedian takes his role as the 

court’s clown seriously. 

The Syrian-born, Ghent-based 

artist dabbles in everything from 

photography to written words 

and drawing, constructing a 

narrative which places memory, 

history and identity at the centre 

of it. The DIY nature of his 

oeuvre – magic pen on paper, 

pencil on paper – as well as its 

unavoidable self-referential 

meaning lends it a rather appealing 

fragility and intimacy. 

His personal insight is formidable 

– take, for example, his 

simple sentence “Life is great, 

without it you’d be dead” – 

as is his attention to detail and 

his obvious sense of humour. 

Essential viewing. 

Mekhitar Garabedian 


to 24 th January 2010 

☞ Hoet Bekaert Gallery, Ghent 

� www.iets.be

© King Records 

Brussels. 

Palais des Beaux-Arts 

AMIS DE PARIS 

Monday 21st of December 2009. 20:00 

F. Mendelssohn. Overture The Fair Melusine 

R. Schumann. Introduction and allegro 

appassionata for piano and orchestra 

F. Mendelssohn. Concerto for piano n° 2 

R. Schumann. Symphony n° 2 

Met steun van 

de Vlaamse 

gemeenschap 

Frank Braley. piano 

Paul Meyer. conductor 

reservation & tickets 

www.symfonieorkest.be

16 

09. Animal instinct 

� British photographer 

Nick Brandt doesn’t do 

wildlife photography. He photographs 

animals, the animals of 

East Africa more particularly. 

Credited with having brought 

the subject of wildlife photography 

into the realms of fi ne art 

photography, Brandt doesn’t 

simply document animals in 

their habitat, but rather seeks to 

capture that single, most dramatic 

moment, getting sometimes 

dangerously close to the chosen 

animals in order to contextualise 

them within their environment. 

This gives a postcard-like 

impression of the continent, one 

which places animals in all their 

full-blown glory. 

Nick Brandt 

� Until 13 th February 2010 

☞ Young Gallery, Brussels 

� www.younggalleryphoto.com 

In Betweeners 

THE FAMILY ISSUE 

� Designr. rdv 

from 11 th to 13 th December 2009 

@ The White Hotel, Brussels 

– In its fourth year, the Designr. 

rdv unites 50 fashion, product, 

jewellery and accessory designers 

for a weekend-long sleepover at 

The White Hotel. Each designer 

is given a room to present, 

promote and sell their wares 

around this year’s overriding 

theme: Spicy Imperial. Amongst 

the international cast of talent, 

we particularly look forward to 

Michael Guerisse’s leather-clad 

creations and Les Filles a Papa’s 

unashamedly spoilt-brat essence. 

www.designr-rdv.be 

� Matthew Crasner, 

Clyde Knowland and Jihef 

until 20 th December 2009 

@ Chausée de Wavre 220 

Wavresteenweg, 1050 Brussels 

– Part of a wider artistic regeneration 

project, this trio of painters 

and installation artists with 

roots in Brussels’ street art scene 

occupy a disused retail space 

in the neighbourhood south of 

Porte de Namur / Naamsepoort, 

showcasing their latest works. 

© Nick Brandt 

09. 

THE DIARY 

United Kingdom 

10. 

11. 

© Ben Young © Eva Hesse 

( 10 � 15 ) 

10. The Test Run 

� At fi rst glance you’d 

be forgiven for thinking you 

were looking at someone’s trash. 

In many ways this is what Eva 

Hesse was questioning. Born in 

1936, she managed to redefi ne 

what was at the time considered 

a very “male” discipline, 

bringing to it a feminine touch. 

Refl ecting on the internal, 

her work always remained 

human. Using materials such as 

wire, latex, metals, cloth and 

wax, she constructed sculptures 

to resemble something reminiscent 

of everyday objects, things 

one would perhaps normally 

discard. An exhibition that will 

defi nitely leave the viewer with 

more questions as to the meaning 

of art. 

Eva Hesse - Studiowork 


to 7 th March 2010 

☞ Camden Arts Centre, London 

� www.camdenartscentre.org 

11. Split 

personalities 

� SaLon Gallery 

invites Ben Young for his 

London debut solo exhibition. 

Describing himself as a selftaught 

artist despite his Masters 

in Fine Art from St Martin’s, 

Young introduces us to his 

artistic alter ego Contemporary 

Man, a character which inhabits 

a world of experimentation, 

where “the real” world’s rejects 

become his playing fi eld, his 

points of reference. Layered, 

fast-paced and chaotic, his 

paintings reveal the many 

infl uences derived from Young’s 

vagabond nature (his youth was 

spent travelling through India, 

Australia and the States) and, 

ultimately, proves a refreshingly-pleasing 

body of work. 

Contemporary Man 


☞ SaLon Gallery, London 

� www.salongallery.co.uk

12. Homecoming 

� The artist who 

needs no introduction, Damien 

Hirst has made a living – a very 

comfortable living – out of his 

multitalented practice, expressing 

himself through installations, 

sculptures, paintings and 

drawings to construct a distinct 

narrative of love, life, death, 

loyalty and betrayal. With 

human nature at the core of his 

work, he exploits its many uncertainties, 

divulging an uncanny 

and visceral dialogue between 

art, science and popular culture. 

Steeped in historical references 

yet always to be taken with a 

pinch of salt, this exhibition at 

White Cube promises to reveal 

yet another facet of the man’s 

vision. 

Damien Hirst – Nothing Matters 


☞ White Cube, London 

� www.whitecube.com 

13. OK computer 

� London’s V&A once 

again stays ahead of the pack 

with its exhibition on the follies 

of digital and interactive art. 

Curated together with digital 

arts organisation onedotzero, 

the showcase is sectioned in 

three parts. Code as a Raw 

Material presents works which 

use codes as raw material in 

the same way a painter might 

use oil, or water-based paint. 

Interactivity showcases pieces 

which are shaped by interacting 

with the viewer (a human-size 

eyeball which blinks one second 

after the viewer blinks, for 

example). And The Network 

explores works which exploit 

the digital trail left behind by 

everyday communications. 

Decode: Digital Design 

Sensations 


to 11 th April 2010 

☞ Victoria & Albert Museum, 

London 

� www.vam.ac.uk 

THE NEXT FEW WEEKS' AGENDA FILLERS 

14. Street 

sale 

� Walking through 

Amsterdam’s red light district 

can be unsettling enough, but 

imagine encountering it within 

the pristine surroundings of 

The National Gallery. Using 

everyday objects to construct 

their shocking duplications, 

Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s 

full-scale reproduction of a 

red light street questions art as 

we know it, breaking down the 

barriers between art and the 

“real” world. Monumental and 

opinionated, The Hoerengracht 

(which translates into Whore’s 

Canal) confi rms the couple’s 

reputation for their politically 

virulent artistic vision, 

one which infl uenced everyone 

from Tracey Emin to Mike 

Kelley. 

Kienholz – The Hoerengracht 

� Until 21 st February 2010 

☞ National Gallery, London 

� www.nationalgallery.org.uk 

15. Bean 

counting 

� Tatsuo Miyajima’s 

work inhabits the sometimes 

grey area between physical art 

and science. Creating installations 

using LED digital counting 

devices, the Japanese artist 

explores everyday traumas 

through the combination of 

geometric patterns and organic 

shapes, revealing poetic and 

soft works which are, before 

anything else, always pleasing to 

the eye. The exhibition presents 

several series, of which one 

– Pile Up Life – observes the 

human devastation left behind 

by natural disasters. Meant as a 

requiem for lives lost to nature, 

the œuvre is a collection of 

towers made of natural stones 

encrusted with LED lights. 

Tatsuo Miyajima 


☞ Lisson Gallery, London 

� www.lissongallery.com 

© Damien Hirst - White Cube 

© Kienholz © Danny Brown 

© Courtesy Lisson Gallery 

THE FIRSTS 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

17

18 

France 

( 16 �17 ) 

16. Plastic 

world 

� It’s hard to overstate 

the significance of Playmobil’s 

effect on playing patterns the 

world over. Indeed, the 7.5cm 

figurine, created by German 

Hans Beck back in 1974 as a 

counterweight to the ensuing 

oil crisis, innovatively allowed 

toddlers to bend their play pals 

to their every demand (it was 

the first time that toys could be 

shaped and adapted). For this 

retrospective documenting the 

toy’s many evolutions, Les Arts 

Décoratifs roll out the red carpet 

to cowboys and Indians, pirates 

and Vikings, space heroes and 

football players, contextualising 

them within sets specifically 

created for the exhibition. 

Il était une fois Playmobil 


to 9 th May 2010 

☞ Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris 

� www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr 

17. Leave 

me alone 

� The act of retrieving 

oneself from reality, to escape 

and curl-up is the premise of 

this exhibition at Paris’ Palais 

de Tokyo. Drawing on the works 

of many artists – Gardar Eide 

Einarsson’s penciled robotportrait 

of Theodore Kaczynski, 

America’s most elusive terrorist, 

art collective Dora Winter’s 

reproductive installations, Paul 

Laffoley’s paintings (the fi rst 

time the well-known American 

recluse’s work is shown in 

Europe) to name but a few – the 

exhibition celebrates desolation 

and lonesomeness. Despite 

the dark nature of the exhibition’s 

theme, the fragility and 

beauty of the works on shows is 

impressive. 

Chasing Napoleon 


☞ Palais de Tokyo, Paris 

� www.palaisdetokyo.com 

THE IDENTITY ISSUE 

© Les Arts Décoratifs 

© Courtesy Robert Kusmirowski & Foksal Gallery 

16. 

17. 

THE DIARY 

Holland 

18. 

19. 

© Edward Burtynski © Elizabeth Peyton 

( 18 � 19 ) 

18. Court painter 

� Portrait specialist 

Elizabeth Peyton has painted 

anyone and everyone that 

matters in today’s high society, 

from David Hockney to Prince 

Harry and Marc Jacobs. Her 

distinctive brush stroke, characterised 

by timid dashes of 

paint and a certain distance kept 

from her subject, is eloquent 

yet simple, often painting her 

subjects in lights they normally 

would never be seen in. 

Although some have accused 

Peyton of blatant celebrity-seeking, 

the poetry and nonchalance 

prevalent in her works as well as 

her ability to capture a fragility 

not usually associated with her 

many subjects makes her the 

perfect heir to Andy Warhol. 

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton 

� Until 21 st March 2010 

☞ Bonnefanten, Maastricht 

� www.bonnefanten.nl 

19. Blood in 

blood out 

� Canadian photographer 

Edward Burtynsky is 

well-known for his damning 

visual verdicts on the industrialised 

world’s many shortcomings 

– from mining in China 

to ship breaking in Bangladesh 

– culminating in the mesmerising 

documentary Manufactured 

Landscapes. He has also, for 

over 10 years now, focused his 

lens on the rise (and rise) of the 

world’s dependence on black 

gold, taking his many fans on a 

voyage to Azerbaijan’s oil fi eld 

through to Detroit’s decaying 

automotive factories and Los 

Angeles’ sprawling highway 

network. Engaging, thought-provoking 

and visually-arresting, 

this is one exhibition we strongly 

urge you to catch. 

Edward Burtynsky – Oil 

� Until 28 th February 2010 

☞ Huis Marseille, Amsterdam 

� www.huismarseille.nl

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20 

Concert picks 

& other things to do 

THE FINGER PRINT ISSUE 

� J to the C & Nag 

on 5 th December 2009 

@ Kavka, Antwerpen 

— MC and producer Nag celebrates the 

release of his latest LP with a get together of 

sorts, with on-point affi liate and funk-revelation-of-the-year 

J to the C enlisted to hype 

‘em up before the lights go out. 

www.kavka.be 

� A Mountain of One 


@ Vooruit, Ghent 

— Dreamy, dark and captivating, A Mountain 

of One’s debut album’s blend of alt-rock 

echoes that of Pink Floyd and Depeche 

Mode, with a hint of Deep Purple. 

www.vooruit.be 

� Mr. Oizo 


@ Het Depot, Leuven 

— Although some might consider Mr. Oizo’s 

productions overly chaotic and complex, 

the Ed Bangers fl ag-waving Frenchman still 

manages to pack a punch when it comes down 

to getting the dance fl oor pumped up. 

www.hetdepot.be 

� High Needs Low 


@ Congres Station 

— In its third edition, High Needs Low 

distinguishes itself by bringing a regimental 

approach to throwing parties, led by the 

steadfast artistic vision of inceptor Soumaya 

Dancemachine (also one of the parties’ DJs). 

Known for its creative pulling power, this 

edition boasts fi rst-time Belgian appearances 

by the likes of Lawrence of Dial Records 

fame, a heady mix of projections, light works 

and photography as well as a participative 

stenography (read party-goers-generated fun). 

� Da BlueFunk District presents 

Slum Village 


@ Le Tavernier, Brussels 

— Whilst the death of their ringleader might 

make other bands call it quits, Slum Village 

haven’t let their game slip, ensuring Dilla’s 

legacy lives on. Don’t miss this opportunity to 

catch the Detroit duo heat up and tear up the 

intimate settings of Le Tavernier. 

www.le-tavernier.be 

� Wax Tailor 


@ Botanique, Brussels 

— Rarely does a French rapper command 

such authority amongst his US counterpart, 

although happy hip-hopper Wax Tailor holds 

it down as easily in Bedstuy as he does in Les 

Halles. 

www.botanique.be 

What We’re Giving Away 

Two pairs of tickets to the following concerts: 

THE DIARY 

� Mr. Oizo on 11 th December 2009 at Het Depot, Leuven 

� PouDude 

(Poupi Whoopy 4 release party) 


@ Scheld'apen, Antwerp 

— Celebrating the release of the fi rst ever 

male edition of the country's best underground 

pin-up book, the Poupi Whoopy 

naughties put on a night of performances 

(Jean-Biche, Creamy Caro), playlists 

(Naughty Nathan) and projections. 

www.poupiwhoopy.com 

� Dr Lektroluv 

(+ Le Le, Fredo & Thang, Jules X & Nondejul) 


@ Petrol, Antwerpen 

— It doesn’t get any trashier, dirtier and raunchier 

than Dr Lektroluv, the green-masked 

father of electroclash with sets that never fail 

to pack a serious dose of whupass. 

www.petrolclub.be 

� The Temper Trap 



— A mixture of rock with some tween love. 

Makes us think of worlds spinning and confetti 

falling from the sky, with the almighty 

love embrace at the end. 


� The Joy Formidable 



— Punchy vocals, speedy guitar riffs with 

good “woos" in the background and even 

some male/female duets. Imagine Blondie 

surfi ng on speed. 


� Da BlueFunk District presents Slum Village on 13 th December 2009 @ Le Tavernier, Brussels 

� Dr Lektroluv on 19 th December 2009 @ Petrol, Antwerpen 

What you need to do. 

Send an email to wewrite@thewordmagazine.be, specifying which concert you wish to go to in the subject line. The fi rst readers to do so will 

each win a pair of tickets to the concert of their choice. 

Conditions. 

Only one pair of tickets permitted per reader. Tickets not for resale. Until tickets last. Applies to Belgium only. Normal conditions apply.

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WOLUWE 

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22 

THE BLUE EYES ISSUE 

THE HERITAGE PAPERS 

— We don’t keep a diary, instead we track our life back 

through high points of passion and emotion; the music 

that provided the backdrop to a great night, epic football 

matches, the sunglasses we wore on the best holiday 

ever, getting to see a band we never thought would play 

again, or those special encounters that suddenly make the 

improbable possible. 

Writers Alex Deforce, Hettie Judah, Nicholas Lewis, Randa Wazen

© Veerle Frissen 

The mix 

to drop 

Art school dropouts and bourgeois bad boys 

listen to 2Many DJs’ infamous mashed-up 

mixes. Pill-poppers eternally trying to recapture 

their chemical coming-of-age religiously 

collect FabricLive. Nerdy crate-diggers get 

off on the epic Blue Notes collections whilst 

Parisian boho hipsters rack-up Kitsuné Maison 

digital downloads. Even tweenagers have the 

deathlessly naffery Now That’s What I Call 

Music! to bop along to. 

High priests of the music world, industry 

insiders and even musicians themselves, 

however, all swear by one series, and one series 

only: the now classic DJ Kicks series which has 

attracted some of the game’s biggest producers, 

musicians and DJs, from The Glimmers, 

Thievery Corporation and Tiga to Stereo 

MCs, Rockers Hifi and a Massive Attack’s 

Daddy G. !K7 Records, the German label 

behind the series, has made it its raison d’être 

to work with “up-and-comers about to break” 

according to Juan Vandervoort, the A&R who 

has headed the project for the last fi ve years. 

THE MIX TO DROP 

The series “is meant to give an insight into 

[fans]’ favourite band”. So, for example, you 

discover Hot Chip’s smooth mixing abilities 

and eclectic tastes – ranging from Marek Bois 

to Joe Jackson – or that The Raptures head 

nod it to Ghostface Killah’s Daytona 500 

– essential intelligence when you’re a fl agwaving, 

t-shirt-wearing, fl y-posting devotee. 

“They (the fans) feel they need to have the mix 

in their collection,” says Juan, partly because 

the label encourages the artist to “use it (the 

series) as a platform to do something they 

wouldn’t normally do on their artist album” 

but really, because most mixes contain an 

exclusive track - be it a demo, a collaboration 

or an unreleased remix - adding collecting 

clout to the compilations’ desirability. 

Launched in 1995 by !K7 Records’ Stefan 

Struver, DJ Kicks was a playground initially 

reserved for DJs, but the label decided, about 

three years ago, to “move towards producers 

and artists who don’t DJ so often.” While the 

fi rst ever mix saw Belgian CJ Bolland setting 

the tone, the imprint’s latest release comes 

from Canadian prodigy producers Chromeo 

(reviewed on www.thewordmagazine.be ). The 

selection of which artists get to mix the series 

seems to be more personal than anything, the 

result of informal discussions Juan has with 

BELGIUM 

23 

artists. Once an agreement is reached, mixes 

tend to reach the stands four or fi ve months later, 

although some take much longer – “I’ve been 

speaking to Burial (about his mix) for 18 months 

now” he says, with a hint of frustration. 

It’s evidence of DJ Kicks’ cachet that so 

many bands approach the label with 

requests to have a go, but not all artists the 

label approached want to come on board 

(Portishead and Danger Mouse both apparently 

declined). Others answer the brief with 

surprising professionalism, as was apparently 

the case with Booka Shade. The series’ most 

successful run came from Austrians Kruder 

& Dorfmeister; Juan attributes the success of 

the mix - which reputedly sold almost around 

a million copies - to “timing and name recognition”. 

Top of Juan’s wish list are Aphex 

Twin, Kraftwerk and Boards of Canada. All 

three have apparently all said no too, but he 

remains undeterred. 

On future releases, !K7 Records’s pickand-mix 

man is “very excited” about Flying 

Lotus and The Juan MacLean’s upcoming 

series, saying of Lotus’ Kicks compilation “it’s 

more than just a mix”. No shit. (NL) 

www.dj-kicks.com

24 THE RED HAIR ISSUE 


Rewind, play, 

revive 

History has proven that the music industry’s 

perpetual cultural recycling knows no limits 

or expiry date; contemporary styles of music 

are deeply infused with references and nods 

to those that preceded them. You can hear it, 

defi ne it and there sure is no point denying it. 

Modern artists rightfully make it their duty 

to pay verbal tribute to those who infl uenced 

them, namedropping every single obscure 

band they might have drawn inspiration from. 

But great as such homage is for enriching one’s 

iTunes library with hidden gems, they are a 

frustrating gift – there’s no chance of seeing 

these bands live or waiting for a new material; 

sharing obscure music references with fans is 

rarely more than an offering of dead entities 

to the masses. Yet sometimes, such tributes 

from the currently successful actually manage 

to bring these musical ghosts back from the 

underworld. 

Beck never made a secret of his massive 

regard for Os Mutantes, and has admitted 

that hearing the Brazilian band for the fi rst 

time was a revelatory moment for him. He 

even named a track of his Mutations album 

Tropicalia; an obvious wink to the Tropicalist 

movement the band was part of. Os Mutantes 

only released four albums between 1968 and 

1972, yet have seen their legacy perpetuated 

by various hipster devotees including 

Devendra Banhart, Sean Lennon, the Flaming 

Lips, David Byrne and even Nirvana. Kurt 

Cobain was such an admirer of the group 

that when his band played in Brazil in 1993, 

he sent a fan letter to Arnaldo Baptista, 

the Mutantes' keyboard player and bassist 

begging him to perform with them, an offer he 

declined at the time. However Os Mutantes 

fi nally hit the road again in 2006, 34 years 

after their last concert. What used to be one of 

the best-kept secrets of psychedelic rock then 

delivered the highly anticipated album Haih 

or Amortecedor in September. 

Garage rock owes a great deal to The 

Sonics. Even though the Tacoma based band 

never had a Billboard 100 single, they left 

a profound mark on three generations of 

punkers and screamers, from The Cramps 

to The Stooges and more recently The Hives 

and The White Stripes. Nearly 40 years after 

splitting up, three of the fi ve original members 

reunited and toured Europe for the fi rst time. 

The Horrors, the UK’s attention grabbing 

‘it’ band who admitted that The Sonics were 

a major infl uence on their sound, supported 

them during their London shows, putting four 

decades of rock heritage in perspective. 

Hardcore enthusiasts – Flea and John 

Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers among 

them – got nostalgic when Initial Records 

released a compilation of Black Flag covers in 

2002. A year later the iconic punks – who disbanded 

in 1986 - played three reunion shows to 

packed audiences. 

Countless other not so under-the-radar 

bands have made fl amboyant comebacks 

recently, including The Sex Pistols, The Who, 

The Police, Pearl Jam, The New York Dolls, 

Guns ‘n Roses and Faith No More. As successful 

and heart warming as it may be, reviving 

cult bands is tricky. Returning decades after 

having left on a high note is of course risking 

ruining the legend. Certain acts age like fi ne 

wine, others turn sour like vinegar. But in any 

event, the original will always have that more 

authentic – if perhaps not more appealing – 

fl avour than their heirs. (RW) 

© Pierre-Philippe Duchâtelet

Old school 

kicks 

There’s still a sign that reads ‘Crossing’ at the 

23 bus stop on the north side of Schaerbeek's 

Parc Josaphat, but until recently, rumours had 

it that this might soon be the only reminder of 

a glorious part of Brussels' sporting heritage. 

Schaerbeek’s once majestic Crossing Stadium, 

for years crumbling and disused, seemed destined 

to rot into the ground as the debate about 

what to do with it stretched across years. 

Entering the Crossing stadium, the pessimistic 

rumours were soon forgotten as home 

side FV Kosova beat Kappelle-Op-Den-Bos 

to a 2-0 victory, moving up to fi fth place in the 

2nd Provincial league. Kosova shares Crossing 

with RC Schaerbeek, a 3rd Provincial league 

team. The atmosphere in the supporters’ bar 

below the dilapidated stadium had the warmth 

of a family reunion, with long-lost sons stepping 

in one after the other, refreshing beer 

awaiting them on arrival. 

The contrast to this familial warmth couldn't 

have been bigger when we snuck into the abandoned 

stadium above. It’s forbidden territory 

OLD SCHOOL KICKS 

for visitors; the building has been closed off 

for over a decade amid fears that the roof and 

stands might collapse. Showers and dressing 

rooms gather dust, and the terraces are dark 

beneath the severely decayed concrete roof. 

“Would you believe that I've seen Bob 

Dylan play here? Right here, in our stadium,” an 

enthusiastic football fan exclaimed, back at the 

bar. It’s true; in June 1984 Dylan chose the thencharming 

venue for his Brussels concert during 

a European tour alongside Carlos Santana. 

Crossing has seen many legendary derbies; 

loyal supporters still remember the day 

Anderlecht beat Schaerbeek with a devastating 

6-1, and how the scoreboard didn't have 

a number six. The club put up a fi ve with a 

one next to it. When the footballing force of 

Crossing Molenbeek and Royal Cercle du 

Sportif Schaerbeek merged, the club stood 

its ground in the fi rst division for four years 

in the early 70s as Royal Crossing Club de 

Schaerbeek. 

The club was so renowned for the passion 

of its supporters that national television RTBF 

chose to broadcast its fi rst live colour football 

match from Crossing. Filled to the brim, some 

15.000 supporters watched Schaerbeek crush 

Standard Liège with a devastating 3-1 victory. 

Until this day the legend stands that the local 

BELGIUM 

25 

team was unbeatable on its own turf. The 

team’s strength at home was equalled by their 

weakness on unfamiliar grounds; Schaerbeek 

has only ever won one away match. 

After four glamorous years in fi rst division, 

the tide changed. In 1973 the club was 

relegated to second division. There was one 

more legendary moment before the glory days 

faded for good. A packed stadium watched the 

team battle Standard Liège a fi nal time for the 

title. After a nerve-breaking 90 minutes, the 

team was defeated with a close 0-1. After that, 

Crossing’s home team slid year after year, 

ending up in the Provincial league, where the 

team fused with Elewijt in 1983 and continued 

under the name of Royal Crossing Elewijt. 

FC Kosova currently count over 400 

members and RC Schaerbeek over 600; with 

the latest rumours suggesting that the state 

has fi nally committed to start refurbishment 

in 2010, it seems the future of football is at 

last assured in the 1030 commune. Some folks 

even have their fi ngers crossed that one day 

they’ll get to watch another rock concert in 

the shadow of the Josaphat trees. (AD) 

© Sarah Michielsen

26 

Serious 

baggage 

THE EVOLUTION ISSUE 

“I made him suffer in the beginning,” says 

Ralph Baggaley (pictured left), giving 

Maarten De Ceulaer (pictured right) a playful 

punch in the arm. “He was one of those students 

who think the world is their oyster, but 

we get along well now; it’s like a marriage.” 

It’s a marriage that comes with a pretty 

serious trousseau – or rather a very large pile 

of leather-clad suitcases, designed by Maarten 

and meticulously hand stitched by Ralph 

at his atelier in Rhode Saint Genèse. The 

fi rst edition of Pile of Suitcases was indeed 

Maarten’s graduation project from Antwerp 

Academy, and he admits that he may have 

underestimated the technical problems that 

came with his design. “Everyone else I spoke 

to said that the piece was so big that it was 

impossible to make it in a perfect way, I had 

no idea it would be so diffi cult,” he recalls. 

“Then someone at the tannery in Anderlecht 

saw the project and said that if anyone could 

make it, it was this guy Ralph.” 

To Ralph, it was the right challenge at the 

right time. His career in leatherwork began 

Impressive 

specs 

Stylist Pierre-Yves Marquer arrived off the 

train from Paris for our fashion story this month 

with a very special delivery – three pairs of way 

out-there vintage glasses lent by his friend Aida 

Abdelouhab of Selima Optique. The picture 

featuring the vintage Cazal sunglasses ended up 

being one of our favourite images of the shoot 

– the frames are wild, almost scientifi c-looking, 

but with a curious allure. 

Cazal’s idiosyncratic frames are seriously 

durable, manufactured according to exacting 

technical specifi cations and painted by 

hand. In production since 1975 Carl Zalloni’s 

designs hit the big time during the 1980s when 

the attention-grabbing styling and solid construction 

made them favourites on the US Hip 

Hop scene. If you’ve ever seen a Run DMC 

clip, you’ve likely seen a pair of Cazal shades. 

Cazal recently re-issued some of its classic 

frames, but for fetishists, nothing beats the 

real stuff from back in the day. “For collectors, 

Cazal is a brand apart,” explains Aida. 

“They are beautiful, they have a history, they 

are very rare, and the ones from the 1970s 


with handbags in Amsterdam in 1972 after 

he ‘dropped out’ of his job as an electrical 

technician in the US. “I like leatherwork, it’s 

in the American psyche,” he explains. From 

Amsterdam he moved to a commune in Ghent 

where he kept up with the leatherwork in 

between stints milking the cows. After three 

decades of bags, he moved onto furniture, and 

and 80s have a very particular look – people 

really know you’re wearing them.” Aida and 

her sister Selima sell unworn vintage frames 

alongside their own handmade spectacle collection 

from their stores in Paris’ Marais district 

and New York’s Soho. As the only specialist 

vintage optician in Paris, it has become 

the destination for fashion industry insiders 

in search of something different, albeit at a 

seems pleased as punch by the recognition his 

skills are now getting through this collaboration. 

“Maarten is schmoozing around while 

I’m slaving here – but he’s very fair: most 

people who had an artisan like me at their 

disposal would be very secretive.” (HJ) 

www.maartendeceulaer.com 

price; the tag of €250 for non-designer vintage 

frames zooms to €800 for the most desirable 

stock. “Many fashion shops do vintage now, 

but we’ve been doing this for 20 years,” says 

Aida. “What you see here is all the fruit of our 

passion and research.” (HJ) 

www.selimaoptique.com 

www.cazal-eyewear.com 

© Pierre-Philippe Duchatelet © Yassin Serghini

Rue au Beurre 24-26 I 1000 BRUXELLES I Tél : +32 2 511 95 98 I Fax : +32 2 511 47 48 I www.degreef1848.be I info@degreef1848.be

30 

Business 

genetics 

THE SPERM ISSUE 

— When your livelihood 

also happens to be your 

passion, it’s inevitable you 

take part of it home with 

you. You discuss it over 

dinner with your partner, 

over drinks with your 

friends, over Christmas 

with your family. It’s often 

at the kitchen table that a 

spark is fi rst passed on to 

the next generation. The 

Word spoke with fi ve 

successful entrepreneurs 

about how their parents’, 

grandparents’ and even 

great grandparents’ 

experience shaped their 

business nous. 

Writer Rozan Jongstra 

Photography Ulrike Biets 

(except when stated otherwise) 

01. 

THE BUSINESS 

“It was a natural process,” says Esfandiar 

Eghtessadi, creator of the clothing brand 

Essentiel. “My mother took me everywhere 

along with her; it was in the factories, the 

shops, the ateliers that I fell in love with 

fashion.” With a mother like Nicole Cadine, 

one can only imagine. Looking back on 

his childhood, he sees it as having been an 

in-depth training for his career, calling it 

a hands-on opportunity to develop skills 

such as creativity, vision and clarity of mind. 

“Growing up in those surroundings allowed 

me to pick up specifi c knowledge and expertise. 

It defi nitely helped me in the sense that 

I was somewhat prepared for the challenges 

I later took on.” He does caution that while 

growing up in the business may offer a certain 

head start, you won’t get far without talent or 

a knack for the job. For Esfandiar, this talent 

was design; he sees his attention to detail and 

his ability to tell a story through clothing as 

a key strength, linking the storytelling to his 

Iranian heritage. Ten years after its launch, 

Essentiel’s own story is a triumphant one.

What started out as a line of t-shirts quickly 

grew into an entire clothing collection complete 

with accessories. “My love for style in 

general as opposed to one particular style 

also stems from my background, and I think 

Essentiel refl ects that. As a designer, who you 

are shines through in what you do.” 

" As a designer, who 

you are shines through 

in what you do. " 

Esfandiar and Inge Eghtessadi 

Staying true to who you are was also important 

to Paul Haelterman, Carlsberg Importers’ 

Managing Director. After spending four years 

at Coca Cola and seeing how restructuring 

clashed with his ethical stance, he decided to 

step into the family business in 1994 where he 

felt he could not only make a difference in the 

company’s future, but would also have a hand 

in his own. As another youngster who grew 

up amidst business talk, people and deals, in 

retrospect his choice of career seems obvious. 

“I inherited my entrepreneurial zeal and my 

propensity for risk-taking directly from my 

father. Joining the company my grandfather 

started would allow me to put these to use as 

well as pursue my dream, which was to launch 

new products.” His dream became reality in 

2002 with the launch of Tao. Envisioning an 

alternative to classic soft, sports and energy 

drinks, he came up with a well-being drink, 

made with natural ingredients. Not only that 

but he got to work with the people he chose 

– according to Haelterman, another clear 

advantage of a family fi rm. A background in 

business offered him two other important 

factors that aren’t easy to come by: consistency 

and stability. “My job is to be a kind of guardian 

to the brand. I take fi nance, marketing 

and IT for my account, whereas my brother 

handles logistics and the commercial aspects 

– we complement each other perfectly.” 

Complementary skills from within a 

family also converge at Café Costume, where 

the two-piece suit is given a tailored twist. 

Clients can customise their suit by selecting 

the cut, fabric, lining and buttons that tickle 

their fancy. The concept was dreamed-up by 

Bruno Van Gils whose family have owned the 

Van Gils menswear brand for three generations. 

While his main responsibilities include 

creative input and brand positioning, his 

BUSINESS GENETICS 

© Yassin Serghini 

02. 

03. 

LIFESTYLE 

31

32 THE EGG ISSUE 

nieces Saskia and Angélique take care of the 

commercial and fi nancial aspects. “We make 

a good team. The hard thing about a family 

enterprise is keeping your business and 

private life separate – let’s say you can forget 

about that. But at the end of the day, it’s worth 

it. We’re a small yet very organic company,” 

Bruno says. He feels that the company’s fl uid 

structure also allows them to adapt to change 

easily, preferring to see it as an opportunity 

rather than a necessary evil. “We’re sensitive 

to changes in both the industry and in customer 

demands. If necessary, we’ll adjust our 

services just as well as our seams.” 

" We make a good team. 

The hard thing about a 

family enterprise is 

keeping your business 

and private life separate. " 

Bruno Van Gils 

Bruno attributes his taste for innovation 

and passion for the job to his grandfather, who 

even at 83 can still be found in the factory. As 

for the advantages of growing up in the business, 

he is unequivocal: “Yes, you have a 

certain knowledge and credibility to back you 

up and yes, you always have someone to turn 

to for advice, but my career was never handed 

to me on a platter. To be able to do my own 

thing, I’ve defi nitely had to fi ght.” Wanting to 

throw off the yoke and create his own identity, 

he spent his adolescence rebelling against both 

the legendary family and brand he had been 

born into. “I wanted to do something different 

and to show people that I had ideas of my own. 

We created Café Costume for a totally different 

generation than Van Gils – a generation we 

can identify with and understand.” 

Steven Van Roy, fourth generation and 

current owner of VR Embroideries, agrees 

that it takes more than background alone to 

set up and maintain a thriving business. VRE 

was founded in 1876 by François Van Roy as 

a company producing work clothes, and after 

introducing the weaving mill and a collection 

of men’s shirts, ladies’ blouses were added to 

the repertoire in 1965. When Steven and Els 

Van Roy took over in 1999, they decided that 

in addition to the embroidery department 

and contract work, they wanted to develop a 

separate women’s collection. They teamed up 

04. 

THE BUSINESS 

with the designers Katrien Strijbol and Vicky 

Vinck, creating Just In Case; a high-fashion 

brand that showcased the company’s expertise 

in embroidery and lacework. “This collection 

was something completely different for VRE. 

Apart from production, we had to start from 

scratch - we rebuilt the entire structure. The 

commercial side, for example, is like day and 

night. It’s been hard work to get where we are 

today,” Van Roy explains. “My parents never 

tried to convince me to take over the company. 

If anything, they tried to warn me about the 

diffi culties the industry could pose.” But he 

knew what he wanted and after graduating as 

a stylist, he stepped into the family business. 

As for the success of Just In Case, he credits 

the design and fi t. “It’s a well thought through 

and worked out collection.” 

Arnaud Wittmann’s parents also cautioned 

him about the diffi culties inherent in the family 

business. Wittmann is one half of Brusselsbased 

jeweller De Greef, a family company

stemming back to 1848, which he runs together 

with his brother Jacques. He remembers how 

his father tried to juggle the pressures of the 

jewellery shop with family life. Though he 

tried to keep work and home separate, jewels 

and watches were always a big part of Arnaud’s 

childhood, whether helping out in the shop as 

a teen or during family visits to other jewellers 

on holiday. “I had a strong love for creation and 

design, but it was some time before I realised I 

wanted to take part in the business,” he admits. 

“My brother and I worked together with our 

father for almost 10 years. It wasn’t always 

easy, as he found handing over responsibility 

rather diffi cult, but we learned a great deal 

from him. He taught us to be independent in 

our choice of brands and banks, for example.” 

Wittmann also learned the importance of customer 

service, seeing how the attention his 

father paid to customers even after a sale would 

inspire loyalty. 

" My brother and I worked 

together with our father 

for almost 10 years. 

It wasn’t always easy, 

as he found handing 

over responsibility 

rather diffi cult. " 

Arnaud Wittmann 

Sometimes, however, opinions on the 

creative approach did clash. His father 

comes from a Protestant background which 

inspired a certain modesty in his collections, 

whereas Arnaud wanted to include some 

bolder pieces. “We sell dreams,” he explains, 

“which meant we needed to combine that 

modesty with an element of fantasy.” The 

passing of their father meant the end of an era 

for De Greef, but it also gave Arnaud the possibility 

to express his creative side. The result 

was De Greef Creation in 2000, a collection 

designed by Wittmann himself. “It’s a big and 

bold collection, which was right for the time.” 

But times are changing in the land of silver 

and gold too, and the crisis has also affected 

people’s taste in jewellery. “The new keyword 

is subtlety. It’s quite challenging to have to 

adapt your creations, but it’s a question of 

trying. It’s about taking a step back, fi nding 

the right balance, yet keeping your identity. 

BUSINESS GENETICS 

05. 

I’d like to have a new minimalist collection 

out by June 2010.” So does the future look 

bright and sparkling or is he a little worried? 

“I don’t think so,” he laughs, “As long as there 

are women, there’ll be jewellery.” 

www.essentiel.be 

www.taodrinks.com 

www.cafecostume.com 

www.justincase.be 

www.degreef1848.be 

LIFESTYLE 

Previous pages 

01. Essentiel's Esfandiar 

and Inge Eghtessadi 

02. Tao's founder Paul Haelterman 

03. Café Costume's Bruno Van Gils 

These pages 

04. De Greef's Jacques and 

Arnaud Wittmann 

05. Just in Case's Steven Van Roy 

33

34 THE PREDECESSOR ISSUE 

THE INSTITUTION 

The gloomy raw brick façade is not very 

welcoming. The thick, dark, wooden door, 

usually closed, isn’t either. Not much gives 

it away, apart from a small sign that reads 

“Booze ‘n’ Blues”. Yet the brave few that dare 

to venture beyond are immediately rewarded 

with the intimate atmosphere, cosy, dimmed 

lighting and sound of classic blues music 

fi lling the air. And there’s the man. Eddy 

(pictured above), a thin, tall, lanky dude who 

is cool as a cucumber and mysteriously quiet, 

slowly gliding back and forth behind the milelong 

bar to serve his clients, chain-smoking 

rolled cigarettes in the process. 

He’s no stranger to the business, having 

worked in bars for the past 30 years, and even 

used to run the mythical Blues Corner. That 

small venue right off the Grand Place was a 

true reference, hosting concerts every night of 

the 14 years it stayed open, attracting blues 

fanatics from the four corners of the globe. 

Drop a coin 

in the slot 

The home-away-from-home vibe, vintage jukebox, exquisite blues and memorabilia make the 

Booze ‘n’ Blues one of the fi nest places to infl ict damage on the liver while delighting one’s 

ears. But more fascinating still is Eddy, the man at the helm of this underrated institution 

Writer Randa Wazen 

" … even though Eddy 

didn’t know what ‘booze’ 

meant, he was instantly 

compelled by the way 

it sounded. " 

After he was forced to shut it down, Eddy 

took a three-year break. When he spotted 

the “for sale” sign at Rue des Riches Claires 

20 Rijke Klarenstraat, he knew he had to go 

for it. This old corner building was actually 

part of the church right across the street and 

dates back to the 16 th century. “It used to be 

the cloister of the ‘black sisters’ who were so 

called because of their outfi ts”, he explains. 

A friend from New York suggested the name, 

and even though Eddy didn’t know what 

‘booze’ meant, he was instantly compelled 

by the way it sounded. Located only a dozen 

meters away from the very lively Place Saint- 

Gery, Eddy reminds us that while the area is 

home to the buzziest bars in town today, it was 

pretty dead back then. “I was alone here. Only 

the Bizon and the Java were around.” 

Lost souls, expats, music lovers and regulars 

form the core of the eclectic clientele. But 

the most interesting brew of folks can be found 

in the early hours of the morning, once all the 

nearby joints have closed their doors and 

kicked out the last men standing. Those keen 

on pursuing their nocturnal recreation further 

fi nd refuge in the Booze ‘n’ Blues, which almost 

serves as a Noah’s Ark for downtown’s inebriated 

night owls, for the house policy is that 

there is no closing time. A man of the night, 

© Ulrike Biets

Eddy stays up for as long as the clients do, 

which is undoubtedly one of the secrets of the 

place’s success. “People know that this is often 

the last place open and that I’m not going to 

throw them out. That’s why they feel so much 

at home. There is no pressure here”. The bar 

opens around four or fi ve pm and the party 

can go on until seven or eight am, depending 

on the crowds and the mood. Don’t expect too 

much action on Sundays or Mondays though, 

as those are the quieter nights. 

Blame it on the booze or on the blues, there 

is defi nitely something in the air that makes 

this place very special. Despite the premises’ 

scruffy style and mix and match appearance, 

few details were left to fate; everything has 

its own logic and reason for being here. The 

common link is rather simple: these are all 

things that Eddy loves. Whether it’s the music 

memorabilia, artwork, or old objects. Posters 

of Frank Zappa animate the ceiling, Eddy’s 

favourite concert stubs are pinned to the wall, 

alongside photos depicting people whose 

names start with a B – Jacques Brel, George 

Brassens and Buddy Guy – funny drawings 

made by regulars are framed. There is also 

an omnipresent lizard theme going on, either 

obvious – the reptile miniatures behind the 

counter – or more discreet – the tone on tone 

paintings all over the place. “It all started 

with this lizard brooch I always wore on my 

jacket. I wanted some around here. Friends 

and customers brought over little lizards that 

I put behind the bar. Suddenly I got fl ooded 

with them. There’s an army of lizards stashed 

upstairs.” Even the colour and texture of the 

walls was carefully studied. One wouldn’t 

expect Eddy to pay such attention to details 

given his beyond-nonchalant demeanour. 

The truth is that his philosophy is pretty 

much that of a deeply committed artist taking 

care of their masterpiece. It’s a philosophy 

that pays off, since people who set foot in the 

bar inevitably come back. If not for Eddy’s 

impeccable taste in music and wide selection 

of artisanal Belgian beers, then maybe for the 

“submarine” – a shot of schnapps in a glass of 

beer - the house’s speciality. Or the restrooms, 

whose gritty state could make Booze ‘n’ Blues 

the direct heir of the CBGBs. Or perhaps 

maybe for “The Fakir”, an ancient fortunetelling 

machine that goes back to the 50s, displayed 

on the counter. “People believe in it,” 

Eddy assures us, straight faced. “They do. 

Sometimes I’ll even have a group knocking 

DROP A COIN IN THE SLOT 

on the window if the place is closed, begging 

to come in because they want to fi nd out how 

the rest of their evening will unfold.” 

The true heart and soul of the Booze ‘n’ Blues 

however lies in its jukebox, a stunning 1958 

Rock-Ola, which Eddy refers to as “his 

Cadillac”. His impressive collection counts six 

priceless vintage machines, but this baby is his 

pride and joy. Hearing him rave about it makes 

it even more astonishing that he entrusts it to 

drunken fellows who have a go at it all night 

long. Packed with blues classics and old hits, its 

power goes beyond the tunes it boasts. It serves 

as a fairly effective social lubricant, bringing 

the crowds together as soon as the needle hits 

the vinyl. Folks will have a chat about the songs 

and holler in unison during epic sing-alongs. 

The discs available were all carefully picked 

by Eddy, who rarely modifi es the selection, 

allowing regulars to come back confi dent that 

they’ll fi nd their favourite Otis Redding, John 

Lee Hooker, Gary Moore, Nancy Sinatra, 

Jimmy Rogers or Luther Tucker tracks. Which 

means he’s been hearing the same songs over 

and over again, every single day of the week 

for the past eleven years. Could he ever get 

fed up with it? “Never. How could you possibly 

get fed up of such timeless songs?” he asks 

back. Granted. 

" When someone comes in, 

all I need is a glance 

at that person or group 

to know exactly what 

will tickle their fancy. " 

Religiously picky about music, he only 

enjoys certain types of blues and hates it 

when the French mess with a genre that “was 

born in America and should stay there.” But 

we’ve got to hand it to him: the man knows his 

stuff. His years spent at the Blues Corner have 

allowed him to forge an astounding knowledge 

of the repertoire and he’ll only play the 

best in his bar. More impressive is his ability 

to read people. “When someone comes in, all 

I need is a glance at that person or group to 

LIFESTYLE 

35 

know exactly what will tickle their fancy.” It 

seems to work, since not even the most radical 

music snob could ever possibly complain 

about his choices. Not surprisingly, customers 

are always asking who’s playing, and Eddy 

usually obliges, generously passing along 

this priceless heritage to absolute strangers. 

Although he cheekily admits that he’ll sometimes 

deny them an answer, just for the fun of 

it, or because he’s tired of relentlessly being 

quizzed. His dedication to setting the right 

soundtrack to the night goes as far as operating 

as a full on DJ while serving. Whenever 

someone selects a track from the jukebox, he 

manually turns down the volume of the HI-FI 

set and always does it spot on. When asked 

how he manages to get the timing right he 

mischievously replies “I hear the coin drop.” 

Pretty impressive, considering he works 

alone. Part choice, part necessity, he admits 

he isn’t short of offers but knows very well 

that only he can pilot his ship. “I left for a one 

week holiday recently, and when I came back 

it was a disaster. People were complaining. It 

just wasn’t the same.” 

More than just an owner, Eddy is the 

Booze ‘n’ Blues. He offi cially lives in the 

apartment located right above the bar, but 

that’s just his second home; he spends his 

entire life downstairs. “Sometimes when 

there’s nothing on TV, I just come down and 

listen to some tracks by myself. It’s like my 

living room.” One naturally couldn’t help but 

feel worried when he unveils his ideas for a 

new project : a lounge bar. It almost sounds 

sacrilegious, but he justifi es this choice by the 

“need for a challenge, something different.” 

However, rest assured, it will all be done “à 

la Eddy”. Minus the blues, maybe, but with 

the same attention to detail and skills when it 

comes to setting the right tone. He also plans 

on teaming up with renowned designer and 

architect Antoine Pinto – the mastermind 

behind the sumptuous Belga Queen and Midi 

Station restaurants. An improbable duo that 

sounds promising, even if it might mean the 

death of our favourite watering hole. 

Rue des Riches Claires 20 

Rijke-Klarenstraat, 1000 Brussels

36 

THE ADAM & EVE ISSUE 

How Belgium beat 

the dancefl oor down 

THE LOCAL 

— From Popcorn to New Beat, Belgium has serious (and 

not so serious) electronic heritage 

Writer Alex Deforce 

The Slowdown 

For at least a decade and a half, Belgium held 

an international reputation for stripping dance 

music from its soul, letting machines reign in 

the discotheques and for adding an abstract 

tongue-in-cheek humour to the dancefl oors. 

From Paul Oakenfold to Marilyn Manson, 

the infl uence is still felt to this day. 

Driven by a couple of dedicated DJs who'd 

play obscure vinyl gems they'd scored on stateside 

travels. It was Popcorn that paved the 

way for future electronic genres. Most clearly 

by slowing the dancefl oor down. 

The key fi gure in this mini-movement was 

Freddy Cousaert, the same promoter who resurrected 

Marvin Gaye’s career and who fl ew 

over Muhammed Ali after the boxing champ 

scored a Popcorn hit with Stand By Me. Back 

in Ostend, Cousaert would play records in his 

club ‘The Groove’. 

Already a retro movement in its days, 

Popcorn is still out there thanks to the enthusiasm 

of jive-dancing enthusiasts. Decelerating 

the dancing audience by pitching records 

down would push dancers’ skills to impossible 

heights with their slow bop moves. Classes are 

still taught in Popcorn Jive. 

Joke around, seriously 

The year is 1978 and while international 

politics are boiling up, Brussels is slowly but 

surely discovering the realm of electronic 

sounds. Synthesizer devotee Dan Lacksman 

teamed up with jazz veteran Marc Moulin 

and designer Eric Moens to form the group 

that’s often referred to as Belgium's answer to 

Kraftwerk: Telex. Aside from its visionary use 

of synthesizers and rhythm boxes, it's mostly 

the trio’s irreverent humour that sets them 

apart. Infectious and effective on the dancefl 

oor, Telex poked fun at the serious, politi- 

cally turned-on rock music of the time. 

Of their debut album Twist à Saint-Tropez 

came the single Moskow Diskow, a train-driven 

disco anthem with percolating beats and icecold 

vocals that became an immediate international 

hit. The lyrics displayed a trademark 

mix of belgicismes: 'Au café usually so mild 

/ Tonight’s sound is really wild / All the boys 

look super chic / All their songs are fantastic / 

Moskow Diskow / Moskow Diskow’. 

Though seriously conceptualised right from 

the start - the members wouldn’t show their faces 

in public - the group wouldn’t chicken out when 

facing a challenge that could have made them 

lose all credibility: the 1980 Eurovision Song 

01. 02. 

The roots, however, go way back to a small 

movement of soul and funk afi cionados, going 

mental over what was then known as ‘Popcorn’ 

music, named for Club Popcorn, a small bar 

between Ghent and Antwerp that played soul 

music on Sunday afternoons. From the late 

1960s to the mid 70s, while English dancers 

were getting their groove on to Northern Soul, 

Belgians did the exact same thing, but crowned 

the tunes Popcorn instead; a hotch-potch of 

soul, doo-wop, modern jazz, ska and latin. 

contest in the Hague. With the song ‘Eurovision’ 

their sole aim was to fi nish last in the competition. 

But they failed miserably; Portugal voted 

12 points and bumped the group up to 17 th place 

out of 19. With it, however, Belgium was the fi rst 

country to send a fully electronic band to the 

contest, making a clear mockery of the playback 

style of the 'live performances’. 

Bring in the machines 

The early 80s saw Brussels evolve into the 

epicenter of the electronic music scene. With 

Telex on one side of the spectrum, another 

band was rising swiftly to stardom. When 

Billboard Encyclopaedia listed Front 242 in 

its list of ‘500 Best Producers in Rock History’, 

it came as no surprise to the fans. 

If Telex were dedicated to their reputation 

as jokers right from the start, Front 242 was 

equally serious about its military image, to 

the point that rock journalists spread rumours 

about nazi sympathies, much against the political 

convictions of the band members. 

Closely related to the avant-garde ideas 

of the ‘musique concrete’ school, it is often 

stated that Front 242 put the noise in music, 

and music into noise. With the machines at 

the forefront of their music, their sound was 

particularly aggressive and minimal. With 

the release of their second album, the group 

coined the term ‘Electronic Body Music’, 

and, in 1984 hit the States for a 10-gig live 

tour that blew the socks off the American 

audiences. 

© All images courtesy of Ludion

03. 

New Beat 

Pitched down music, a style and image you 

can hardly take seriously and the reign of 

hard machine rhythms? Belgium had it all 

going on when New Beat saw the light of day 

halfway through the 80s. Twenty years after 

its birth, discussions still light up over the fi rst 

DJ that accidentally started playing records at 

a slowed-down pace. 

Looking back at it, it is an impossible task 

trying to catch the new Beat Vibe. Fact is, New 

Beat paved the way for house and techno. Its 

vanguard discotheque - Boccaccio - felt ‘… like 

a dislocated version of life in slow-motion. Twoand-a-half 

thousand dancers swinging at robotic 

half speed to a soundtrack of deconstructed, 

underground Eurobeat.’ (i-D magazine) 

In 1989 it was said that people were 

hunting for the - so far - obscure New Beat 

releases from London to Detroit. Flemish 

DJs were asked to play in London clubs and 

English bands labelled their records ‘Mixed 

in Belgium’ to spark the interest of DJs. 

It wasn't all about music though, at the height 

of the New Beat craze, in came the New Beat 

fashion extravaganza. New-Beatsters would 

arrive for club nights in outrageous outfi ts, 

most notable was the use of the yellow smiling 

face, a logo taken from the rave scene. More 

infamous though, was the grandma- or graveyard-badge, 

printed on t-shirts, and often worn 

as a full-fl edged fashion accessory, literally 

coming straight from the graveyard. Until this 

day it seems unclear where the strange habit 

of vandalising graves came from. But together 

with the use of images of King Baudouin and 

Queen Fabiola, this stands as the most unique 

and most Belgian of fashion statements. 

HOW BELGIUM BEAT THE DANCEFLOOR DOWN 

New Beat lasted for a mere three or four 

years, after which the joke still stood, with 

tasteless spoofs and pastiches still trying to 

hit the charts. So the movement did what it 

had to do: move on. New Beat fans quickly 

discovered 'a sped-up version' of their favourite 

music: house. 

R &S records 

With people in discotheques responding 

to sounds more than melodies, as NME’s 

Graham Sherman explained to a Flemish television 

crew in 1992, the Belgian sound can 

be described as a hard, hypnotic, electronic 

feel. UK DJs and promoters at the time began 

chasing Belgian producers to get their share of 

that hardcore sound. Much in contrast to the 

sounds coming out of other European countries 

at the time, Belgium almost neglected the 

soulful origins of dance music and quickly represented 

a raw, repetitive 4-on-the-fl oor sound 

that would soon spread all over the world. 

04. 

The label that showed the way for many 

now-classic tunes was R&S Records - short 

for Renaat & Sabine, the founding couple 

behind it. With its headquarters in Ghent, 

R&S was the leading label during Belgium’s 

early techno heydays and quickly gathered 

a global cult following. Out of their ‘Techno 

Island’ headquarters came internationally 

acclaimed club classics such as Jaydee’s Plastic 

Dreams as well as the fi rst releases of a thenunknown 

Aphex Twin, who got his fi rst major 

exposure on the seminal label. 

R&S still exists and is still releasing records 

from its back catalogue as well as new artists that 

celebrate the sounds of the past, such as Brussels’ 

Mugwump. Though now under the wings of 

Sony, label founder Renaat still pulls the strings, 

closely monitoring everything that comes out 

under the Ferrari-style logo of the imprint. 

LIFESTYLE 

05. 

" Until this day 

it seems unclear 

where the strange habit 

of vandalising graves 

came from. " 

Do you remember the time? 

01. Acid Angels at Vaudeville (1992) 

02 Bois de Boulogne at The Villa (1990) 

03. Mad Club (1996) 

04. Cherry Moon (1992) 

05. Chemical Club Konzept 

at Lamborghieni (1996) 

37 

Electicism/stoemp 

Though originally a UK phenomenon, the 

world hadn’t gone crazy over the mash-up 

phenomenon since ‘The Adventures Of 

Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel’, 

when 2 Many DJs hit the charts with their mix 

album ‘As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt.2’. By 

taking the vocals of one well-known hit and 

blending with the instrumental of another, they 

managed to open up the ears of many listeners, 

who were until that time locked in clearly 

defi ned genres. The R n’ B princess amongst 

your friends had never really paid attention to 

a 10cc record until she heard Destiny's Child 

laid over Dreadlock Holiday, and it all made 

sense, didn’t it? It was 2002 and the Flying 

Dewaele Brothers had fl ipped the DJ'ing game, 

leaving plenty of Soulwax fans confused. 

Call it the art of Belgian stoemp, as you may 

fi nd the ingredients all over, but it never tastes 

as good as it does back home.

38 

THE KARMIC ISSUE 

My other 

car’s a Golf 

— The one on the left’s been our trusted little helper since 

launching the magazine. Banged up, barely road-worthy 

yet still ever so faithful. The one on the right’s its modernday 

version. Since fi rst rolling out of its factory back in 

1974, over 25 million varying versions of Volkswagen’s 

Golf have hit the road, culminating in this latest edition, 

the Golf 6 Blue Motion. 

Photography Sarah Michieslen. 

THE FACE-OFF

MY OTHER CAR’S A GOLF 

Golf 2, stylist’s own. Golf 6 Blue Motion, from € 21,730 ( www.vw.be ) 

LIFESTYLE 

39

40 THE LINEAGE ISSUE 

THE TRACE 

2000 years 

of modern 

— “Society is superfi cial, 

and art will refl ect 

that,” say Studio Job, 

who wonder whether 

the dark, bloodthirsty 

and psychologically 

twisted works in old 

museum collections are 

more than the viewer 

of today can handle. 

Writer Hettie Judah 

Photography Vincent Fournier 

While previewing the opening of Damien 

Hirst’s No Love Lost, a group of snotty British 

art pundits discussed the setting in which art’s 

great entrepreneurial showman was about to 

hang his canvases. The general consensus was 

that the Wallace’s collection was composed of 

outstanding works on canvas, and an embarrassingly 

naff collection of Sèvres porcelain. 

It was agreed that, whatever the merit or 

otherwise of his canvases, Hirst had done a 

great deed in pulling a new, large audience 

in through the doors of a rather traditional 

museum. Walking around the slandered 

Sèvres and not-once-mentioned collection of 

extraordinary furniture pieces at the Wallace 

during Hirst’s opening, I wondered what 

Studio Job would have made of it all. 

Well before the Hirst show had been 

announced, I’d already asked Job and Nynke 

to talk about museums for our Heritage issue. 

Almost every conversation I’ve had with the 

pair in the past winds up on the subject of 

great museums and art collections; Grünes 

Gewölbe in Dresden, the Vatican museum 

in Rome; and about the twisted imagery that 

crept around the margins of their exhibits. 

The well-behaved visiting public are generally 

too busy looking at neatly labelled canvases 

to notice the naked goat-legged women 

painted onto the window shutters or the 

freaky animals chasing each other around the 

inlayed tabletops. 

“We don’t visit museums every day; 

now we are more into cathedrals, but there 

was a period where we went around all the 

important public and private collections in 

Europe and North America,” explains Job. 

“What Nynke and I get inspired by is the 

total weirdness and craziness of the pieces; 

the artists had extreme ideas which are much 

more expressive than today – it’s like they 

were all on opium. Industry made us poor in 

that way – democratic function and the mass 

reproduction of applied arts made pieces 

simple and dry.” 

Amidst the confusion about the distinction 

between design and art that dogs Studio 

Job’s output, the pair’s understanding of the 

historically blurred roles of craftsman and 

artist seems immensely signifi cant. “In the 

16 th century, artists were much more applied 

artists than they are now; it was normal for a 

sculptor to work on other people’s work for 

bread,” explains Job. “I think that we have lost 

rather than gained; people are conservative

2000 YEARS OF MODERN 

today, and insist on making ghettos between 

professions.” Accordingly, the pair read contemporary 

work in the way that they would 

the output of 500 years ago; their admiration 

for Jeff Koons is rooted in the perfection of his 

production quality. Hirst they admire for his 

honest and earthy response to art as a business, 

rather than as obscure and mystical practice. 

Industrial production of furniture may 

have damaged our regard for the applied arts, 

in part because it has robbed us of our vocabulary. 

History of art focuses on the ‘fi ne’ arts, 

and contemporary reactions to them; very few 

people now know how to respond to porcelain, 

glass, metal or cabinetwork. It is notable that 

the commercial appetite for top-end furniture 

pieces has swung heartily towards works produced 

concurrently with the industrial era 

– 20 th century furniture is often more highly 

prized than earlier works. Like the purchasers, 

THE FIRSTS 

41 

the producers of these works were creating in 

the context of mass production; we understand 

where they are coming from. 

I saw one of Studio Job’s Perished cabinets 

– a wooden piece inlayed with hundreds of the 

images of animal skeletons – displayed alongside 

this sleek vintage furniture at a recent 

design fair, and it looked risky and outrageous; 

ornamental, dark and political. The contemporary 

design market is so cut off from its heritage 

that it seems to have lost any sense that 

Perished is part of a long tradition of highly 

communicative, decorative and even narrative 

works (in which, of course Sèvres porcelain 

has an important position). Job is not sure that 

it is such a bad thing that people don’t realise 

where they’re coming from; “Ignorance is 

better in some cases,” he suggests. “It’s maybe 

better not to know how much human culture is 

endlessly repeating. For some people I think 

it’s better to be ignorant than shocked.” 

Far from feeling at the modern end-point 

of a long history of designers and makers, 

immersion in the works of the past has given 

Job and Nynke a more soupy, circular view of 

time and creation. “People make such a clear 

line between what is now, what’s future and 

what’s past,” says Job, casually. “For me the 

last 2000 years of our creative culture is still 

very actual, compared to the length of time 

the earth has been spinning. To Nynke and 

me the future and past feel very fi ctive; apart 

from the present all the rest can be made up. 

It’s stupid to talk of ancient and modern art; I 

don’t think in these kind of terms.” 

They cite Jean Fouquet’s almost psychedelic 

15 th century Madonna, hung in the fi ne art 

museum of Antwerp, by way of example. “It 

looks like it was done this year on a computer 

program with silicone tits and fl uorescent 

colours,” enthuses Job. “We are fascinated 

because it is so contemporary.” 

But when I launch a knee-jerk complaint 

about young designers’ lack of historical 

knowledge, Job begs to differ. “Designers are 

not brain surgeons – we’re just carpenters who 

put ourselves on a pedestal. Yes, it’s a pity that 

some don’t have the baggage and knowledge, 

and it will show in the work, but I don’t know 

if we should be sad about it.” 

Studio Job’s new exhibition space 

opens on 19 th of December 

at Begijnenvest 8, 2000 Antwerp 

With thanks to the Royal Museum 

of Fine Arts, Antwerp

42 

Heritage 

in my face 

— Your face tells a story 

that goes back generations ; 

the result of a family 

that stayed in one place 

for centuries, or great 

grandparents that travelled 

the world to fall in love ; 

it’s the one part of your 

heritage you can never lose. 


THE LEGACY ISSUE 

THE WORD ON 

Soumaya Abouda 

born in 1983, lives in Brussels 

DJ & graphic designer 

Her dad comes from the south of Tunisia, her mother from the North. 

He has dark skin, she is rather pale. Soumaya is a perfect mix of both, 

a full blood Tunisian, but she also calls herself a brusseleir. When she 

looks out of her window, she sees the hospital where she was born 26 

years ago. But, when you ask people to describe Soumaya, they talk 

about her roots only after they mentioned her big glasses. She started 

to wear them from the age of six, and through the years they have 

become a part of her face. There is no Soumaya without the glasses. 

Lina Germo 

born in 1985, lives in Gent 

photography student 

Lina's mum is Japanese and lives in Osaka, her dad is from Aalst 

and lives in Belgium, they have a long distance marriage. Lina has 

her mum's eyes and the rest she inherited from her Belgian family. 

Sometimes people don't even notice she has Japanese roots, but she 

is proud to be a mix, she has tattoos all over her body that refer to the 

oriental blood that runs through her veins.

Björk Óskarsdóttir 


violinist 

Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavicino 

born in 1972, lives in Ghent 

musician 

HERITAGE IN MY FACE 

Björk is originally from Akureyri, a small town in the north of 

Iceland. She comes from a very pure bloodline, her parents, grandparents 

and great-great-grandparents are all Icelandic. Her dad´s 

family were fi shermen for centuries (in Siglufjörður) and her mum´s 

family were all farmers (in Fnjóskárdalur). She moved to the capital 

Reykjavík when she was 18 to study music. Last year, at age 22, she 

came to Belgium to complete her studies. 

Rodrigo was born in Chile, but because his parents were left wing 

activists, the whole family had to fl ee in 1975 and ended up in 

Belgium. Rodrigo has the same personality as his mum – who has 

Italian roots - but he sure inherited the Indigena looks from his dad. 

Valeria Siniouchkina 


fashion designer 

Toon Aerts 


director and photographer 

LIFESTYLE 

Valeria was conceived in Kazan, born in Switzerland, raised in 

Canada and Moscow and now she lives in Belgium. But her heritage 

is Russian; her father is from Omsk (close to Kazakhstan) and her 

mother comes from Artem (close to the Japanese Sea). Valeria also 

has some Polish and Ukrainian blood in her background, but feels 

Russian above all; she even named her brand after her roots. 

Toon got his hair colour, skin and freckles from his dad, who got it 

from his dad, who got it from his mother. And so on. He is convinced 

that by 2050 redheads will be extinct. People all over the world 

travel from one country to another, make babies with each other, 

which will fi nally result in one type of human, which he describes as 

a white Spaniard. 

43

44 THE BROWN EYES ISSUE THE OTHER WORD ON 

Console nation 

These are diffi cult 

days for the recording 

industry. CDs and legal 

downloads are now seen 

as an unprofi table prop for 

more lucrative live shows. 

Accessible software means 

that artists can record and 

mix material themselves 

at home (a development 

that music labels with an 

eye on dwindling profi ts 

have not been slow to take 

advantage of). Every few 

weeks news reaches us of 

another legendary studio 

being closed down in 

London or… 

Photography Guy Van Laere 


Brussels has a special recording heritage of its 

own and its studios have catered to hosts of 

artists from overseas who still take advantage 

of the lower studio rates and expert sound 

engineering. The latter is hardly surprising; as 

we pointed out earlier in this issue, if there’s 

one territory in music that Belgium can really 

lay claim to, it’s electronics. Dan Lacksman of 

Telex, one of the stars of our article on Belgian 

techno, actually owns Syn Sound, one of the 

studios portrayed on these pages. 

01. 

“The studio business in the whole world 

is not as it used to be, that's a fact,” agrees 

Christophe Tonglet of Caraibes Studio, blaming 

not only home recording and lower budgets but 

also a rash of bogus sound engineers that come 

into the industry having only worked with home 

software and who are so bad that they put artists 

off the whole studio experience. 

“Those guys are ruining the business!” 

fumes Christophe. “We are true professionals, 

we know our job! We are not just knob 

twisters! We know how to record and mix 

music, we have electronic skills, we know 

how to run a business, we know some music 

theory, we know how to operate those big 

consoles, we know what a microphone is and 

how and when to use them. The job of sound 

engineer is disappearing because nobody is 

trained correctly anymore. That's really sad, 

and it's not helping the situation.”

02. 

03. 

CONSOLE NATION 

LIFESTYLE 

" No need for a room and good 

microphones: a cracked recording 

program and plug-ins are easy to fi nd 

on the web. Ask daddy for a couple of 

Chinese mikes and you can say you 

have your home studio. With some 

creativity (I mean: just do what people 

are waiting for; something easy they're 

already used to) and with the help of 

an effi cient distributor, you can get a 

good return (mostly for the production 

company). " 

Michael W Huon 

Studio Odeon /Studio Dada 

45

46 THE CURLY HAIR ISSUE THE OTHER WORD ON 

04. 

06. 

05.

07. 

08. 

CONSOLE NATION 

LIFESTYLE 

" Good studios usually 

have high-end equipment 

that today is mainly 

required for mastering, 

to fi x anything that’s odd 

about a recording. 

(It's wrong, but it's the 

way things are going). " 

Michael W Huon 

Studio Odeon /Studio Dada 

Previous pages 

01. Jet Studio 

02+03. Synsound Studio 

04+05. Studio Dada 

These pages 

06. Studio Molière 

07+08. Studio Caraïbes 

47

48 

THE DNA ISSUE 

What is left 

of industry 

— Last year, the Dutch 

elected Charleroi the most 

ugly city in the Benelux. 

Since the coal industry 

disappeared and the city 

lost its attraction, it has 

become anonymous and 

grubby. Charleroi still 

wears many scars from 

the smokestack industry; 

slag heaps, silent witnesses 

of the former industrial 

grandeur, surround the 

city centre. On Friday 

afternoons, the smoke 

from the Cockerill Sambre 

steel plant still enters 

the suburbs, making 

everything reek of carbon, 

just like in the old days. 

Photography Sarah Eechaut 

Writer Yves Van Kerkhove 

The urban infrastructure is chaotic, with fl yover 

roads and the deserted metro stations 

from the unfi nished underground transport 

line. The fl ashy fast food shops’ neon signs 

and fl uorescent whorehouse lighting, graffi - 

ti-sprayed walls and colourful playgrounds 

gloss over the grey cityscape. But the brightness 

is as superfi cial as the 20 square meter 

photograph of a kite-fl ying kid that covers the 

horror house of Dutroux in the city’s satellite 

town of Marcinelle. 

01. 

02. 

THE TRIP 

The vast coal basin of the Pays Noir once 

attracted thousands of Italian, Turkish and 

even Flemish miners. The fi rst generation of 

guest workers are still living in their houses 

built on the coal debris. It is in these neighbourhoods 

that people continue their coughing 

life as if the clocks stopped ticking 30 years 

ago, when the last mines closed down. Their 

children and grandchildren opened a small 

electronics shop, or – best-case scenario – left 

the city to get a proper education.

03. 

04. 

WHAT IS LEFT OF INDUSTRY 

05. 

LIFESTYLE 

01. Young graffi ti artists try to colour 

the grim neighbourhood 

02. The cleaning lady arrives at her job 

in the lawyer’s offi ce 

03. Garbage man in action 

04. Typical Charleroi street images; 

a bizarre mixture of small electronics 

shops and night shops, used cars 

and vacant street lots 

05. Bar des Anges, a whorehouse guarded 

by a feisty German Shepherd 

49

50 

06. 

08. 

THE CUSTOMS ISSUE 

THE TRIP 

07. 

06. Arrow to the 'social hotel', 

a home for the homeless 

07. People returning from the bus stop, 

heading home. You can read the 

sadness in their faces 

08. An innocent, joyful picture covers 

Dutroux’s atrocious cellar 

cage house 

09. Colourful playground in the 

grim neighbourhood 

10. "Have a break, have a Kitkat" 

11. An old woman is waiting for the bus, 

ready for the weekly grocery 

shopping trip downtown 

12. A fi rst generation guest worker 

goes for a walk on an exceptionally 

sunny morning

09. 

11. 

WHAT IS LEFT OF INDUSTRY 

10. 

12. 

LIFESTYLE 

51

52 

THE TRADITIONS ISSUE 

Back in the day 

— Nothing gives you that almighty mnemonic kick like 

hanging out in your grandparents house – it’s that odd 

way that nothing seems to have changed, from the oldschool 

cigarette brand, to the cologne in the bathroom, 

the smell of the cracked leather fi lofax or worn texture of 

an ink pen held by the same hand for decades. Nothing to 

make you feel like a kid again, like getting back in touch 

with your roots. 

Photography Benoît Bannisse 

Art Direction and Styling Face to Face 

01. Cut throat 

Remember Sharon Stone’s ice pick in Basic 

Instinct? Well, were the cult movie to get 

a modern remake, she’d most probably be 

wielding one of these bad boys. Created by 

master-illusionists ATYPYK, Paper Knife 

is one-half of a pair of scissors and comes 

in a slick, black platted steel. We suspect 

you’ll now fi nd it less daunting to open those 

end-of-the-month bills or, worse yet, that 

dreaded termination contract – not that 

we’d wish either of these on you. 

ATYPYK Paper Knife (€ 30) 

Available amongst others from Bozarshop 

Rue Ravenstein 15 Ravensteinstraat 

1000 Brussels 

www.atypyk.com 

THE SHOWSTOPPERS

BACK IN THE DAY 

LIFESTYLE 

02. Can you sync it ? 

03. Madam, if I may… 

53 

Remember the time when all you needed to 

do to back up your data was take your Filofax 

to the corner shop and photocopy the little 

bugger? No? Well believe us, young folks, it 

was mighty less stressful than worrying you’d 

accidentally drop your new iPhone down the 

toilet before remembering to sync it. Ignore the 

self-important über-twat associations of the 

80s – these babies have been around for 90 

years, and look ripe for a comeback. 

www.fi lofax.be 

The oldest cologne still in production provides 

a weirdly satisfying déjà vu; you recall 

all the products that are trying to smell like 

this (handwipes, for example) and realise 

that they’re wrong. It’s like tasting fake 

chocolate next to actual chocolate; one is 

comforting and nice (in a gentleman’s handkerchief 

kind of way), the other’s not. Next 

time you offer a damsel in distress something 

with which to wipe her eyes, make damn 

sure it smells like this. 

www.roger-gallet.com 

04. Sole survivor 

High-pitched screams of “Patriiiiiiiick” 

have suddenly been invading Word HQ 

although, let us reassure you, this isn’t due to 

our fondness for Frenchman Patrick Bruel’s 

cheesy love ballads, but rather to Patrick 

Heritage’s updated collection of kicks. The 

French-born brand, recently taken over by a 

Belgian company, has heritage spelt all over 

it and is gaining cult status amongst sneakerpimps 

keen for a differentiating factor. 

PATRICK HERITAGE Marathon shoe (€ 79,90) 

www.patrickheritage.com

54 

THE RACE ISSUE 

05. Grrr, cough, cough 

Cigarettes actually were sexy once, and not 

just because the Lucky Strike logo secretly 

has the word LUST written in the four left 

letters. These days Tigra’s naughty little 

come-and-smoke me face is largely concealed 

by less alluring health warnings. Up 

to 20 years ago, you not only got to see the 

pout ; on some editions they showed the full 

catsuit. Rumour has it that Tigra was based 

on a famous Antwerp showgirl – now that’s 

what we call a smoking heritage. 

06. One for the will 

Some parents give their heirs a crumbling 

castle. Some give their descendants unpaid 

taxes or years of debt to settle. The luckier 

ones (depending on how you look at it) will 

be left with a sizeable fund to dispose of at 

their own discretion. The more thoughtful 

and stylish ones out there will, however, opt 

for St Dupont’s timeless writing instruments, 

a collectable similar in status to an 

Audemars Piguet watch or an oversized 

Fabergé egg. 

www.st-dupont.com 

See Stockists page for full product 

information 

THE SHOWSTOPPERS

Newspaper Bag, Men’s “1829” Collection, Designed by Bruno Pieters – Cabas, Vegetable tanned calf – 250 examples 

delvaux.com

56 

THE RITUAL ISSUE 

— No one comes to the 

Lodge* anymore, but 

the symbols still have a 

quiet power. We gaze in 

through the Hexagram 

grate and watch the 

induction, 1930s style. 

Photography Kris De Smedt 

Art direction & Styling Pierre-Yves 

Marquer 

*Designed in 1934 by mason/architects 

Fernand Bodson and Louis Van Hooveld, 

the Lodge on Rue de l’Ermitage was used by 

the Masonic order Le Droit Humain until 

1976. Since the mid 1980s, the building 

has housed Brussels’ archives of modern 

architecture. 

THE FASHION WORD

The Square and Compasses: Jumper Burberry Prorsum, Coat U-NI-TY, Trousers COS, Hat Lanvin

Entered Apprentice: Coat Burberry Prorsum, Jumper Lanvin, Shirt New Man, Hat Lacoste, Belt Yohji Yamamoto, 

Trousers Hermes, Bag N.D.C., Boots Yves Saint Laurent

All Seeing Eye: Jumper And Tie Hermes, Shirt Ralph Lauren, Trousers Yves Saint Laurent 

Grooming Dior Homme Dermo System

The Hexagram: Jacket Yves Saint Laurent, Shirt Lacoste Red, Bow Tie Filippa K, Belt Essentiel, Jeans Levi’s

The Antechamber: Suitcase Hermes, Cap Lanvin, Shirt Bill Tornade, Tie Ralph Lauren, Jacket Gucci, Coat COS, 

Gloves Maison Fabre, Trousers Uniqlo, Shoes Repetto

The Frame: Sunglasses (Vintage) Cazal From Selima Optique, Jacket U-NI-TY, 

Shirt Christophe Lemaire, Grooming Dior Homme Dermo System

Three Knocks: Jacket U-NI-TY, Shirt Christophe Lemaire, Scarf Hermes, Braces Diesel, 

Gloves Filippa K, Trousers Dries Van Noten

Pythagoras’s Triangle: Cardigan Bill Tornade, Shirt Ralph Lauren, Trousers Wooyoungmi, Scarf (Vintage) Bjorn Borg White

Photographer 

Kris De Smedt/77 

www.cestchicagency.be 

Stylist 

Pierre-Yves Marquer 


Stylist's assistant 

Sybille Langh 

Model 

Benoni Loos 

www.imm.be 

Hair 

Brigitte Petit 


using Redken 

Grooming 

Brigitte Petit 


using Dior Homme Dermo 

System 

With thanks to 

La Loge, Brussels’ archives 

of modern architecture 

www.aam.be

WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT DIAMONDS? 

I'M A BOXING PROMOTER. 

BLING 

I WAS A HAPPY BOXING PROMOTER 

UNTIL A WEEK AGO, AND THEN: 

WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT DIAMONDS? 

DON'T THEY COME FROM ANTWERP? 

— TURKISH, SNATCH (GUY RITCHIE, 2000) 

SPECIAL

68 

THE GREEN EYES ISSUE 

Adorning men 

— Jewellery and 

fl amboyant accessories 

provide a stylistic link 

between every counterculture 

movement of the 

last 150 years, be they 

romantics, bohemians, 

b-boys, punks or hippies. 

Just what is it about 

adorned men that so 

offends the mainstream? 


About six or seven years ago, the British media 

gorged itself in disgust over the appearance of 

a new social subgroup – the Chav. It’s often 

said that after punk, no movement will ever 

have the same potential to offend again, yet 

the judgement on Chavs was unequivocal disapproval. 

Like the punks, Chavs were appropriating 

the wardrobe of the ruling classes (in 

this case expensive designer clothing, rather 

than traditional formalwear), but unlike the 

punks, there was no rebel ethos behind this; it 

was almost purely an exercise in shopping. 

Most men in Northern Europe seem to dress 

for invisibility. For work there’s the suit 

(grey), and for the rest of the time there’s 

jeans, sneakers and cheap sports-casual wear 

with maybe a slogan t-shirt thrown into the 

mix. I remember seeing photos of Chav boys 

in the newspapers, dressed top to toe in loud 

Burberry checks, covered in gold and proud 

as punch. They didn’t look offensive ; they 

looked like they’d made an effort, they wanted 

to look good, but most of all, they refused to 

be invisible. I remember thinking at the time ; 

if the guys in this photo were Japanese we’d 

be revelling in their magpie pride and plastering 

them all over the glossy magazines. Just 

01. 

THE WAY 

like the Japanese kids fetishised by Western 

glossies, these boys were spending everything 

on their image. The problem was, they were 

doing it too close to home. 

" I do remember wondering 

why people were staring 

at me on the bus. " 

“I always quite liked chavdom,” agrees 

British milliner Stephen Jones. “I found it 

quite interesting; but thank God Burberry is 

a nice check!” Just as Louis XIV dictated the 

dress at court, suggests Stephen, so the British 

ruling classes enjoy dictating the notion of 

appropriate clothing to keep people in their 

place. “Since Beau Brummel said that true 

elegance was restrained, there has always 

been the standard ideal in menswear, and 

the romantic ideal was the fl ip side of that,” 

he explains. “So much was about propriety 

© Justine Photography 

and fi tting in and majority social standards. 

I remember being told about a man – I think 

it was Gladstone – who wore a bowler hat to 

Parliament and it was seen as so outrageous 

that he got thrown out.” 

Good taste is still a limited club; there 

seems little coincidence in the most recent rise 

of discretion and anonymity as by-words for 

sophistication was concurrent with the rise of 

the Chavs. The snobs and the swaggerers were 

both responding to the same boom-time glut. 

The snobs were using their cut of the good 

times to spend on discreetly labelled grey 

cashmere v-necks, obscure Japanese blazers 

and selvage denim. 

Stephen arrived at Saint Martin’s College 

in London in 1976, the year of punk, and 

recalls that “it was the only way to be, it was 

about self expression, up the establishment, 

and an electrifying new individuality.” His 

favourite outfi ts of the time included three 

piece suits worn with stilettos, vinyl trousers 

topped off with a tweed jacket and something 

he recalls as a kind of bubble made of netting. 

“I do remember wondering why people were 

staring at me on the bus.” 

For Stephen, rebellion was a personal 

imperative, and it automatically translated

itself in the form of dress. “From an early 

age, clothing for me was always a method of 

expression,” he recalls. “Dressing up seemed 

to be the natural thing to do – normally it 

provoked complete horror, especially from 

my housemaster at boarding school.” 

" I was always 

amused to dress like 

my father, but now 

I’m the same age 

as my father. " 

“I always dressed more formally than 

other people – to wear a t-shirt and jeans 

seemed an easy option – it’s more interesting 

for a 21 year old to dress like a 60 year old. 

I was always amused to dress like my father, 

but now I’m the same age as my father. I can 

get away with more now that I’m 52 – people 

don’t shout things in the street as much. I 

think people stopped shouting when I got to 

about 30. I just carried on the way I was, irrespective 

of anything – it’s not fashion, it’s selfexpression. 

That’s the way I want to look, and 

if other people don’t like it then too bad.” 

In British English, if a man is described 

as decorated it means that he has received 

a medal. The word ‘colours’, in referring to 

men’s dress, likewise has military implications. 

To wear metal adornments or bright 

clothing thus was something that you earned 

the right to via bravery or good service. 

Colours and decorations worn by those who 

had not, would seem, by extension, be rather 

subversive to the notion of national pride protected 

by military might. 

“The beginning of the 20 th century was a 

bit of a quiet time (in men’s fashion), because 

conformity was so important,” explains Cally 

Blackman, author of One Hundred Years of 

Menswear. “Maybe it was something to do 

with the war – if you were a middle class family 

man you conformed to what that was meant to 

be.” Looking at the austere collar-less wartime 

suits pictured in Cally’s book as appropriate 

dress for times of cloth rationing, the spivvy 

styled wide lapels that rebel against them look 

guaranteed to cause offence. The slick clothing 

and jewellery associated with the term Spiv, 

still suggests a rotter, someone not quite kosher. 

It’s rather of a piece with the style we now associate 

with East European gangsters; big suit and 

lots of gold ; it suggests a man unafraid to show 

he plays outside the rules of society. 

ADORNING MEN 

02. 

“It was in the 6Os when hippies started 

wearing beads that jewellery was really part 

of a major counterculture movement,” Cally 

explains. “It went against the notion of what 

men were supposed to be looking like in mainstream 

society – it was probably a great shock 

at the time to see men wearing jewellery.” 

We are so used to the bling these days, that 

THE BLING SPECIAL 

01. Stephen Jones 

02. P Diddy 

69

70 THE FRECKLES ISSUE 

THE WAY 

03. 

" The slick clothing 

and jewellery 

associated with 

the term Spiv, 

still suggests a rotter, 

someone not 

quite kosher " 

the notion of it being dangerously subversive for 

a man to decorate himself with jewellery is hard 

to comprehend, but as Cally reminds me ; “with 

the gay scene, until relatively recently, you were 

open to being prosecuted, which added much 

seriousness to being very fl amboyant.” 

The rebellion inherent in mens’ jewellery 

comes from the way it demands to catch your 

eye – its knack for making most visible those 

parts of society that the moral majority would 

prefer not to have to acknowledge, be they gay, 

peacenik, cockney rebel or young affl uent men 

of all stripes from the wrong side of the track. 

Stephen points out that dress is also the 

easiest thing to change about your circumstance, 

and cites hip hop culture as the ultimate 

case in point ; “those guys often come 

from damaged dysfunctional background : the 

one thing they can change is their appearance, 

it’s why these guys look so incredible – the 

ultimate dandy of today is the black guy in 

the ghetto of Atlanta, shining, and looking the 

dog’s bollocks.” Glittering against your surroundings 

lifts you above the grot – perhaps 

another reason that jewellery is considered 

infra dignatum. The landed gentry tend to 

dress terribly, but then they have less grot to 

rise above. 

As the bling of hip hop culture hits the 

mainstream, Cally sees links to earlier periods 

of social inversion. “It’s today’s version of conspicuous 

consumption,” she explains. “As it was 

with Second Empire, late 19 th century fashion. 

When you see P Diddy wearing diamond

earrings that’s what it’s all about. It’s a deliberate 

turn around from the inconspicuous consumption 

that you see in the customers of, for 

example, Margaret Howell – unless you’re a 

real fashionista you wouldn’t notice you were 

wearing a £ 600 jacket – it’s a strange paradox.” 

" The ultimate dandy of 

today is the black guy 

in the ghetto of Atlanta, 

shining, and looking the 

dogs bollocks. " 

Cally’s most recent book is intended to 

counter the idea that menswear is terribly dull, 

but of course the roots of all this social play 

go back much further than 100 years. In the 

18 th century, menswear was much more showy 

and extravagant, and it’s hard not to see the 

creeping sobriety of the early/mid 19 th century 

as having strong links to the industrial revolution. 

To be a middle class man became a terribly 

serious affair – your life was outside home, 

and your role was to provide for your family. 

Part of your status came from having a wife 

who did not work ; fashion and ornamentation 

became the woman’s realm and thus rather 

silly. An adorned man was not a good, sombre, 

middle class capitalist ; he was distracted by 

frivolity. 

It seems rather too delicious that one could 

couple a feminist agenda to the promotion of 

more decorative dress for men – suggesting 

a utopian future of equal pay and ever more 

beautiful boys – but there’s certainly a heavy 

mesh of symbolism connected to bling. Cally 

suggests that anything goes these days, but, 

well, she lives in Brixton : it’s still perfectly 

easy to get beaten up or shouted at in the street 

for excessive fl amboyance elsewhere, and 

deliberately extrovert dress is usually read 

as an explicit challenge to the mainstream. 

While, as Cally points out, the last century 

has seen waves of successive gorgeous subcultures 

in menswear, there’s still a long way to go 

before the decision of whether or not to wear a 

piece of jewellery could be taken as lightly by 

a man as by a woman. 

03. Hippy 

04. N.E.R.D’s Pharrel Williams and 

Tomoaki “Nigo” Nagao of BAPE 

ADORNING MEN 

04. 


Photos 02, 03 and 04 

all from One Hundred Years of Menswear 

by Cally Blackman (2009) – Laurence King 

71

72 THE TALENTED ISSUE 

THE FLASH 

Watchmen 

— Alright, we got gold 

watches, silver watches, 

diamond watches, leather 

watches, fat watches, 

skinny watches. We even 

got your daddy’s watches 

and your mama’s watches. 

Whatever your wrist-wear 

of choice, our trenched-up 

street hawker’s got ‘em all… 

Photography Operation Panda 

For her (from left to right, top to bottom) 

BELL & ROSS White Ceramic Phantom (€ 1,900), Vintage Watch, RAYMOND WEIL Freelancer Chronograph (€ 6,990), Vintage Watch, 

THOMAS SABO Classic (€ 229), Vintage Watch

WATCHMEN 


For him (from left to right, top to bottom) 

Vintage Watch, LONGINES Admiral (€ 1,910), Vintage Watch, RADO Green Ceramica Chrono (€ 2,175), SWATCH Black Right Track (€ 285), 

Vintage Watch, RAYMOND WEIL Freelancer Chronograph (€ 9,300), Vintage Watch, HERMES Automatic Arceau Chronograph (€ 3,665) 

73

74 THE "YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR…" ISSUE THE ENCOUNTER 

Show me the gold 

Photography Ulrike Biets

THE GREATEST 


75

76 THE MOTHER ISSUE THE SPECIAL SHOWSTOPPERS 

All mine when she shines 

— Hey Ulrike – Thanks for sending over the pix. More T + A / less pale, 

wintery skin than I was anticipating, but it’s always interesting to see how 

someone else interprets an idea. I think we can work the more upfront 

style two ways. We can tell the girls that this is a cunning way to get the 

boys to look at really nice sparkly things by draping them over a pretty 

body. And we can tell the boys that this is research – a ready-made excuse 

for looking at naked ladies. Basically it’s like a Christmas catalogue, just 

with more nipples. 


I totally love these shoes – so sexy. They 

were the fi rst thing I noticed when I saw 

Veronique’s new collection. I actually haven’t 

met anyone who doesn’t swoon for them – I 

even met someone who got married in a pair. I 

like the way the geometrical shape of the heel 

off-sets the glitter. And there’s something just 

plain rude about that slit up the back. 

Veronique Branquinho shoes (€ 390) 

From – Hatshoe, Brussels

That’s kind of a creepy photograph – looks 

a little like she’s dead, but I quite like it. 

This brooch is very delicate, which kind of 

takes it away from being too gothic and for 

me sets it alongside all those art deco insect 

brooches. But still, it does make you want to 

buy six and have them all gathered around a 

food stain on your sweater or something. 

Fly badge by Calourette (€ 60) 

From Mapp, Brussels 

www.thisismapp.com 

I totally, totally love this one – it’s a prototype 

that Isabelle is going to start producing 

around the time the magazine comes out. I 

do like the pills and guns next to each other 

in the picture; they’re both kind of fragile 

but with a hard edge. The capsule actually 

opens up and you can put some of your 

lover’s hair inside, which is pretty intense, 

in this day and age. I say I totally love it, but 

I did choke a little when Isabelle explained 

that it was inspired by the Carla Bruni lyric 

Tu es ma came. I think we’re all going to try 

and forget that we knew that, no? 

L’ Amalgame necklace by Isabelle Lenfant (€ 445) 

From The Collector’s Gallery, Brussels 

www.collectors-gallery.com 

I don’t know what it is about these – they are 

really simple, but they look very symbolic 

somehow – the extra loop of metal is almost 

like a force-fi eld around your wrist and 

hand, as though you have planets in orbit 

around you, or you were drawn by a child 

who got a bit scribbly around your outlines. 

There’s something super satisfying in the way 

that bracelet clips open though – it’s weirdly 

industrial, like a piece of climbing equipment. 

I love that the model is wearing really 

baggy silk knickers, by the way – very sweet! 

Maison Martin Margiela 

Defi lé ring (€145) 

Defi lé bracelet (€ 315) 

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com 

ALL MINE WHEN SHE SHINES 


77

78 

It’s really hard to pile all these showy, very 

feminine references into a garment, and 

still have it come out looking fresh and 

even subtle. There are pearls and the shiny 

surfaces and the little ruffl es, yet it feels 

degraded and easy. It’s extraordinary that 

you can put this much bling on a top and still 

come out with something that feels relaxed 

and easy enough to dance about in half 

naked in a lift like this. It’s kind of sexy the 

way all the applique’d stuff weighs it down, 

so that the loose baggy shape drapes over the 

curves of her body. 

Top Phillip Lim (€ 335) 

From Icon, Brussels 

www.icon-shop.be 

Is it wrong that I really like how the shape 

of the pendant and the pink of the coral 

both make references to her nipple? But I 

think that’s cute, rather than creepy, no? 

It was actually Wouters & Hendrix’s coral 

pieces that created the reference for this 

whole shoot – I love the pale pink against the 

pale silver. If you’re going to buy someone 

jewellery, your going to think about seeing it 

against their skin, rather than on a piece of 

clothing – that’s what makes jewellery a hot 

present: only the person who gives it gets to 

see it being worn naked. Is it the only thing 

that you can wear and still be naked? What 

about spectacles? Or the shoes from the fi rst 

photo? 

Necklace with medallion and coral rose 

(€ 212,5) 

Wouters & Hendrix, Antwerp 

www.wouters-hendrix.com 

THE FATHER ISSUE THE SPECIAL SHOWSTOPPERS

�� 

�� 

Small Wonders 

Office Shenanigans 

Stuff on our Radar 

Daily Dribbles 

Everything we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, 

run with in the magazine goes on 

The Word Blog. 

��

80 THE SISTER ISSUE THE HISTORY 

01. 

A matter of life and death 

— Throughout human history, military advances have 

pushed civilian technology. Weapons manufacture has 

traditionally been an enormously important industry in 

the UK and the territory now known as Belgium. Military 

supplies and armaments are still one of the few things that 

actually get manufactured in any signifi cant quantity in 

Western Europe. 

Writer Hettie Judah

Passions spark early; today’s product designers 

spent years drawing technical pictures of 

cool mechanics and machines, building Lego 

aeroplanes, taking apart domestic appliances 

and poring over pictures that showed how 

things work. Cars were always pretty inspiring, 

so were planes and space rockets, but as 

any little boy will tell you, the really neat kit 

always seems to be military. 

Last year, when I was researching our 

feature on violent imagery in design, it became 

clear that a lot of designers have an uneasy 

relationship with the world of weapons and 

armoured vehicles. As adults they seem a 

little queasy in their fascination; acknowledging 

the seductive nature of the well designed 

thing, and the draw of the latent power within 

it, but feeling compelled to vocally distance 

themselves from the cold, hard function. 

An art school education doesn’t necessarily 

make for an easy relationship with military 

technology. Yet for industrial designers, 

the technical rigours necessary for military 

supplies set a gold standard rarely demanded 

in the design of commercial products. They 

must, to the nth degree, be functional, reliable, 

durable, comprehensible, standardised, 

repairable, suitable for mass production, and 

forward thinking enough to remain standard 

kit for 50 years. 

As Michael White, points out in his 

popular history “The Fruits of War: How 

Military Confl ict Accelerates Technology”, 

West Europeans are currently more cut off 

from the world of weapons and the military 

than at any point in human history. In 

the US, civilian gun ownership is standard; 

over here it is not. War and the kit that comes 

with it seem the stuff for foreign soil; ok in 

Afghanistan and Iraq, but we’d prefer not to 

see it or think about it too much back here. Yet 

for previous generations, advances in civilian 

and military technology marched in lock 

step, from numeracy, through road building 

to metal casting to production-line assembly. 

An enormous number of the technical 

advances that shaped the way we lived in the 

latter half of the 20th Century were accelerated 

by research connected to WWII, from 

manufacturing techniques to the development 

of computing. 

Of course there is still a certain symbiosis. 

That cute little TomTom stuck to your dashboard 

uses the GPS developed by the US 

Department of Defence, made available for 

civilian use during the 1980s. It’s the most 

evident example of Dual Use Technology: 

developments arising from military research 

that are released for commercial civilian 

application (another example would be the 

sonar technology used in mammograms). But 

while materials and technical developments 

generated by military research have pushed 

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH 

02. 

civilian applications throughout civilisation, 

it is interesting to see how the infl uence pushes 

now both directions. 

" … for previous 

generations, advances 

in civilian and military 

technology marched 

in lock step, from 

numeracy, through road 

building to metal casting 

to production-line 

assembly." 

I visited BAE Systems’ design and development 

facility in Leicester, England as the 

company launched proposals for a new generation 

of armoured vehicles (the FRES SV) to 

the British Ministry of Defence (MOD). The 

FRES SV is a modifi ed off-the-shelf design. 

It uses the chassis of an existing vehicle - the 

CV90 – that has been developed and modifi 

ed by BAE Systems’ facility in Sweden since 

1985. The company is using the base vehicles’ 

proven reliability as a selling point to 

the MOD; the 20 years of tweaking that it 

DESIGN 

01. 3D visualisation dome, 

BAE Systems, Leicester 

02. FRES SV Scout, working prototype 

81 

has passed through should mean that BAE’s 

future client should only have to splash out 

on very specifi c modifi cations. 

Part of the standard kit on board is an electronic 

interface system, allowing the crew to 

see where they are and share pertinent information 

with other vehicles in the squadron. 

Different functions will be available to different 

users, but the physical design and means 

of interaction will remain the same; a rugged 

screen surrounded by buttons (touch screen 

is out, because of the vibrations of the vehicle 

moving over rugged terrain). 

Rather than create a new system for the 

interface, BAE used existing technology developed 

by the gaming industry and based the 

system on Microsoft’s Windows. “The military 

world once led this, but they don’t anymore,” 

explained BAE’s spokesman, Mike Sweeney. 

“So why take the risk of using a bespoke system 

when this one is already understood by 95% of 

the people who will use it?” One of the support 

vehicles, the Terrier, is used to clear mine fi elds 

and can be operated remotely – which is done 

using a ruggedized Playstation controller (the 

engineers joke that they paint it green so that it 

looks a little more serious). They are conscious

82 THE BROTHER ISSUE 

03. 

" We seem to 

have gone from a society 

guided by the serious 

to a society guided by 

the frivolous 

within a generation. " 

THE HISTORY 

that the vehicles will be operated by members 

of the “the iPod generation” and those that will 

come beyond it. 

While one can only applaud the designers’ 

impulse to keep things as intuitive as possible, 

there’s something a little unsettling in the fact 

that the fi eld in interactive technology is now 

lead by computer games and leisure rather 

than the military. We seem to have gone from 

a society guided by the serious to a society 

guided by the frivolous within a generation. 

Walking around the facility, the gaming 

connections are hard to avoid – from simulators 

to visualisation suites – I’m not so sure how 

right Michael White was in saying that we’re 

now a society cut off from military culture. We 

may feel very separate from it, but it’s evident 

that gaming technology is the contemporary 

version of previous generations ‘sword fi ghting’ 

with sticks or making guns out of Meccano 

– the difference is that we play as adults too, 

which is why gaming has become the vernacular 

of combat. It seems modern warfare really 

has been brought to you courtesy of XBox. 

Play, or make-believe, is of course a key 

part of the development program. BAE uses a 

3D visualisation dome for potential end users 

(ie people with experience driving armoured 

vehicles in the fi eld) to make a virtual tour of 

the FRES SV and comment on imperatives 

such as sight lines and escape routes. The 

dome is essentially 8 screens arrange in a 

ring, showing images from 16 projectors that 

pass through polarised fi lters. Standing in the 

dome wearing polarised glasses, the designers 

can present their CAD information “in a 

format others can understand”. Their clients 

can check out the storage space, or work out 

whether a 1.96m man in full body armour 

could get through the hatches. 

It’s interesting to compare the trends 

pushing changes in design in civilian and military 

products. Like civilian product designers, 

the team behind the FRES SV series has 

had to deal with changes in the market and 

shifting human needs. They also have to learn 

from their previous mistakes. 

As with any other vehicle design, the team 

has to take into account the physical change in 

those driving it – the likelihood that the men 

will be much larger and heavier than those 

provided for by the 1960s-designed Scimitar 

it will be replacing. They also need to accommodate 

possible female operatives, which 

© all images courtesy of BAE Systems

means providing for a height range with more 

than a 30cm variant. 

Their market, for the FRES SV in particular, 

is likely to be operating in Afghanistan, where 

landmines have been a persistent problem. If 

seats are secured to the fl oor, the movement of 

the base of the vehicle as it goes over a mine 

is enough to break the passengers’ ankles. The 

new generation of vehicles have cushioning in 

" The movement 

of the base of the vehicle 

as it goes over a mine 

is enough to break 

the passengers’ ankles. " 

the fl oor, and seats attached to the side. The 

mine protection is claimed to be comparable to 

a battle-tank, despite being much lighter. 

Previous generations of armoured vehicles 

had specifi c problems with their gun turrets – 

lack of stability meant that the vehicle could 

only fi re the gun when stationary, putting the 

unit at risk. The limited space within vehicles 

also limited the size and thus power of the gun 

they could carry. BAE were playing up the 

developments in vehicle stability (the FRES 

SV can fi re on the move), and what they refer 

to as a ‘revolutionary’ compact gun design - 

the MTIP-2 - that, (if I understood the jargon 

correctly), is loaded from the side rather than 

the back, allowing the vehicles to “pack more 

of a punch”. 

With all the hard-sell going on for the 

FRES SV family, it’s quite a shock to realise 

that only around1200 are likely to be produced 

for the MOD if BAE win their bid. 

The scout, repair, recovery and protected 

mobility vehicles that made up Recce Bock 

1 – the fi rst tranche of the order, which was 

anticipated to be around £2 billion – represented 

600 actual vehicles, the fi rst of which 

would be ready for use in 2015. The vehicles’ 

have a mature start point in the production 

process (only the customised top section for 

each vehicle would be produced by BAE in 

the UK), but production capacity is still only 

around 100 a year. 

It is bizarre how closely all this fi ts within 

the guidelines that commentators knock 

around when discussing sustainable design 

practice; products developed in close consultation 

with end users, manufactured in 

limited series and intended for enduring use. 

My initial interest in the fi eld had been driven 

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH 

04. 

05. 

by a desire to learn about new materials and 

technologies; instead the ‘lesson’ I picked up 

from my fi rst tranche of research was rather 

an old fashioned one about semi-artisanal 

production and diligent research. From one of 

Western Europe’s oldest industries, I suppose, 

that should hardly come as a surprise. 

This report represents the fi rst part in an 

ongoing research project into military and 

weapons design. 

DESIGN 

03. Inside BAE' s Systems Integration Facility 

04. CAD image of the visualisation dome 

05. CAD image of a Bulldog vehicle 

83

84 THE MONGREL ISSUE 

THE SHELF 

Shelf life 

— This month’s pick of photography primers has a certain 

whiff of celebration to it. Be it an immortalisation of 

the continent’s foremost design practices, a walk along 

memory lane back to the days of Kangol hats and fat 

caps, a recognition of a city’s collective dress code or 

a solemnisation of the century’s greatest design books, 

we pay our dues. 

Photography Yassin Serghini 

Art Direction Mélisande McBurnie 

Writer Nicholas Lewis 

Studio Culture (2009) 

by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy 

Unit Editions 

The cult-like aura surrounding certain 

design studios is such that you’re sometimes 

left with the same feeling of creative intimidation 

as when you’re about to enter an art 

gallery. A world which more often than not 

is insular and introverted, opens up to the 

general public – not through open days but 

through this magnifi cently produced book. 

Spanning offi ces from Trieste to Tokyo and 

Barcelona to Brisbane, Studio Culture gives 

you an insight into the thinking of some of 

the greatest graphic design minds of the last 

couple of decades through informal discussions 

with studio heads and a thorough 

presentation of their work. Spin, A Practice 

for Everyday Life and Experimental Jetset 

are all present, as is Coast, the only Belgian 

offi ce to be represented. 

Antwerp Street Style (2009) 

by Jens Mollenvanger 

Ludion 

Metrosexuals, new romantics, glitzy 

gangsters, nu-age ravers and fashion 

freethinkers are all put to the fore in this 

jam-packed round up of Antwerp’s decorated 

masses. Infamous for its propensity for 

radical experimentation, a certain collective 

aesthetic has shaped the city’s fashion 

consciousness, immortalised by a certain 

laisser-faire, just-throw-on-whatever-youfeel-like 

approach to dressing up. At times 

repetitive but always inspiring, the book distinguishes 

itself from your run-of-the-mill 

style bibles by not taking itself too seriously. 

Oil (2009) 

by Edward Burtynsky 

Steidl/Corcoran 

Edward Burtynsky’s meticulous approach to 

documenting the world’s over-dependence 

on the black stuff makes for compelling 

viewing. Cunningly categorised in four 

poignant sections – extraction, Detroit, 

transportation and the end of oil – the 

book reads like a damning verdict on the 

oil lobby; Burtynsky’s very own political 

protest in favour of a more equitable use 

of energy sources. Securing access to some 

of the most ungodly sites on the planet – a 

cemetery of disused fi ghter planes, a pit with 

a bunch of Bangladeshi youths bare-footed 

in recycled oil – Burtynsky confi rms his 

knack for research, taking his lens to places 

you aren’t supposed to see. 

American Power (2009) 

by Mitch Epstein 

Steidl 

The different notions of power – economical, 

electrical and political – are the basis 

of Epstein’s surreal voyage to the heart of 

America’s love affair with horsepower. 

Capturing the ubiquitous presence of everything 

from nuclear facilities and oil refi neries 

to truckstops and pipelines, Epstein’s 

customary eerie aesthetic and thought-provoking 

narrative treats the topic at hand with 

a humanity which helps to contextualise his 

work. Consider the Californian golfers set 

against a backdrop of wind turbines or, more 

worrying yet, a football game taking place 

under the towering presence of a coal power 

plant. This book will only further fuel the 

debate on daily power plays in American life. 

Bibliographic (2009) 

by Jason Godfrey 

Laurence King 

Billed as a compilation of the century’s 

seminal design books, Bibliographic 

documents the evolution of graphic design 

throughout the last 100 years. Drawing on 

on graphic design manuals, symbol sourcebooks, 

instructional titles and trademark 

design anthologies, it draws on the legendary 

(Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Josef 

Muller-Brockmann) and the contemporary 

(Stefan Sagmeister and Peter Saville), giving 

typeface addicts and graphic design nerds 

the closest they’ll ever get to porn on paper. 

Born in the Streets (2009) 

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain 

Short of fl ying over to New York for a walk 

through its concrete galleries, Born in the 

Street – the accompanying catalogue to 

the exhibition of the same name at Paris’ 

Fondation Cartier – provides a timeline 

in vandalism, delving into New York 

City’s spray can heritage to reveal a world 

of throw-ups, train panels and tags. With 

in-depth personal accounts by the likes of 

P.H.A.S.E 2 and Lady Pink and poignant 

photography of a New York of the bygone 

era, the tome fi rmly cements graffi ti’s place 

in contemporary culture. A quick fl ick 

through its pages will even make you feel 

part of the crew, like you actually were 

sitting on that writer’s bench together with 

Jay One and Seen. 

This Book is Elektronic (2009) 

Ludion 

This book takes us back, waaay back. A 

celebration of Belgium’s undeniable contribution 

to global club culture, it celebrates 

the many clubs, club nights and labels 

dedicated to the genre. An encyclopedia, or 

‘elektropedia’ as its inceptor Red Bull likes 

to call it, This Book is Elektronic gives a 

chance to those who took their fi rst steps on 

a dancefl oor to Telex’s Moskow Diskow to 

delve back into the era. The period’s fl yers 

(with entry price still in Belgian Francs and 

artwork that’d make Marc Moulin proud), 

photographs of leading clubs (Zillion, 

Cherry Moon and Fuse to name those 

closest to our hearts) as well as a 10 track 

compilation are all there.

SHELF LIFE 

CULTURE 

� 

From top to bottom 

This Book is Elektronic (Ludion), Oil (Steidl/Corcoran), Bibliographic (Laurence King), American Power (Steidl), Studio Culture (Unit Editions), 

Born in the Street (Fondation Cartier), Antwerp Street Style (Ludion) 

85

86 THE MAPLESS ISSUE 

THE PENCIL 

The lost art 

Progress always comes at a price. As we 

become more culturally sophisticated 

and mature, how many of those special 

arts – honed over years of practice – drop 

by the wayside, slip out of the collective 

consciousness, never to be revived? 

We felt it was time for an assessment of 

our collective heritage: those skills we 

perfected in earlier years, but now seem to 

have lost. 

Never washing our hair because it ‘washed 

itself’. Spitting in the street. Wiping 

the crockery off on a towel rather than 

cleaning it. Stealing ashtrays at parties. 

Sleeping straight on the mattress (who 

needs sheets?). Having a smoke and a beer 

before going in to work at our temp job 

on a construction site. Driving the car 

while off our tits on drugs. And of course, 

spraying deodorant on the outside of our 

t-shirts. 

Illustration Jean Biche

THE LOST ART 

CULTURE 

87

88 THE STATELESS ISSUE THE TALENT 

Portraits photographiques et uniformes 

Photography Charles Fréger 

“This particular guard study is an answer 

to my Empire series about the Royal and 

Republican guards (of Europe),” explains 

Charles . “If you did not know who 

they were, you would almost not see the 

difference.” 

All aged between nine and 16, the 

Tivoli Boys Guard was founded in 

1844. Several brigades parade through 

Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, the 

world’s oldest amusement park, guarding 

the monuments and providing musical 

diversion. Their uniform is virtually 

identical to that worn by the Queen’s Life 

Guards. 

Over the last 10 years, Charles Fréger 

has dedicated himself to the portrayal 

of youth movements, uniformed groups, 

social orders and guardsmen. His Empire 

series has just been published as a book 

by Kerher / Thames & Hudson.

TIVOLI GARDENS 

CULTURE 

89

90 THE BOUNDARY ISSUE THE TALENT

TIVOLI GARDENS 

CULTURE 

91

92 

Far east 

Photography Emilie Pischedda 

THE ARISTOCRATIC ISSUE 

Earlier this year Projet Diligence was 

invited to participate in the 10th Shiryaevo 

Biennale, 100 miles east of Moscow on 

the banks of the Volga. Emilie, Valentin 

and their daughter Nina responded to the 

Biennale’s theme America: between Europe 

& Asia: with a gallery installation rooted in 

a performative series of photographs. 

Inspired by the aesthetics of American 

cinema, the photos juxtapose the archetypal 

posturing of the American outlaw hero with the 

THE VOYAGE 

mysterious presence of the little girl dressed in 

a traditional Slavic fur hat and embroidered 

tunic. The pair are joined in the rubble of an 

isolated building by an exotic menagerie of 

creatures more usually associated with the 

Americas than the banks of the Volga. 

Projet Diligence is a peripatetic arts practice 

whose work balances – and often combines 

– site-specifi c projects, performance, 

photography and monumental sculpture.

FAR EAST 

CULTURE 

93

94 THE EARTH ISSUE 

THE VOYAGE 

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95

96 THE HUMAN ISSUE 

THE ROUND UP 

pages 02 – 03 

Essentiel 


page 07 

Filippa K 

www.fi lippa-k.com 

page 15 

© King Records 

WWW.ESSENTIEL.BE 

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MATHIAS SCHOENAERTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHEL DE WI 

STORES: STEENHOUWERSVEST 61 & 65, 2000 ANTWERP | RUE ANTOINE DANSAERTSTRAAT 42, 1000 BRUSSELS 

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THE LASTS 

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Small Wonders 

Office Shenanigans 

Stuff on our Radar 

Daily Dribbles 

Everything we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, 

run with in the magazine goes on 

The Word Blog. 

�� 

The Word 

www.thewordmagazine.be 

97

98 THE MORNING AFTER ISSUE 

WHAT'S NEXT

Dining in style 

Ristorante italiano , part of The Rocco Forte Collection “Hotel Amigo” 

Rue de l'Amigo 1, 1000 BRUXELLES | Tel. : 02.547.47.15 | Fax : 02.547.47.67 

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