Forever Hip Antwerp

For decades, Antwerp has scored high for its coolness quotient.  Situated in Belgium’s northwest province of Flanders, its second-largest city put itself on the map in the late 80’s when a group of fashion school graduates threw their designs into the back of a rented truck and headed to London for Fashion Week.  There, the cheeky renegades – known as the Antwerp Six – debuted to rousing applause, which still hasn’t stopped though they’ve grown up and evolved to become fashion powerhouses with cutting edge shops and devout followings.

With avant garde designers like Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Walter Van Beirendonck, internationally known visual artists like Luc Tuymans, innovative restaurateurs like Roger Van Damme of  Het Gebaar and Viki Geunes of  ’t Zilte,  and architects like bOb Van Reeth – whose looming black and white striped  Zuiderterras is a quayside landmark – Antwerp has surely earned the monikers “trendy,” “hip,” and “cool.”

The truth is this small city has been cool for ages.   Between the 12th and 16th centuries, Antwerp grew into a powerful trading capital, its watery tentacles stretching from the River Scheldt into the North Sea, and beyond to India, Morocco and other exotic ports. Today, Antwerp is Europe’s largest steel and petroleum port, and its second largest port after Rotterdam.   Notables of all colors, creeds and nationalities have flocked here for centuries —and still do.  Peter the Great came here to study shipbuilding.  Mozart gave a recital in the Cathedral.   Napoleon set up shop here for a time.  Diverse influences inspired home-grown talent like 17^th century Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck whose masterpieces, in turn, inspired generations of artists.  Each year 800,000 people from around the world just can’t seem to stay away.

And like all great port cities, Antwerp is constantly re-inventing itself.   Now, and for another couple of decades for sure, the action centers on the port, north of the city center.  In May 2011, the Museum aan de Stroon (MAS) opened in the hip docklands district of Het Eilandje or “The Island.”  Straddling the Willemdok and the Bonapartedok, the MAS makes a powerful architectural statement with its red stone tower (the stones imported from India) covered with more than 3,000 steel hands – Antwerp’s traditional symbol and named, legend has it, after a Roman soldier who cut off a giant’s hand and threw it in the river. Exploring how this tiny port city became a world power, the MAS exhibits hundreds of documents, films, and objects ranging from an Egyptian mummy to an early Antwerp-built motorcar.   An observation deck, free to all, overlooks the River Scheldt.    Also in the MAS is one of Antwerp’s top restaurants,’t Zilte while numerous modestly priced bistros, cafés and “summer bars” surround yacht filled Bonapartedok and Willemdok.   North, on the Kattendijkdok, the stunning Het Pomphuis, a restored 1918 pump house for dry-docked ships, serves up elegant cuisine in a cavernous interior best described as industrial meets Art Nouveau.

On September 27, 2013, another world-class museum joins the MAS.  In ’t Eilandje’s Montevideo neighborhood, the Red Star Line Museum, People on the Move, designed by New York architects Beyer, Blinder & Belle, will tell the compelling story of more than two million immigrants, many of them Jewish and some famous today, like Albert Einstein, who left their lives behind and sailed the Red Star Line from Antwerp to the New World between 1872 and 1938.

’t Eilandje should be high on anyone’s list.  But chances are you’ll begin your visit a bit further south.   Antwerp has its own airport, but most visitors fly into Brussels, the capital, aboard various carriers including Brussels Airlines, which began daily service from New York’s JFK Airport in June, 2012.  Others arrive in Brussels by high speed train from London or Paris, less than two hours away and continue for Bruges, Ghent, or Antwerp, just 35 minutes north. Trains arrive at Central Station, a lavish Art Nouveau landmark on the Koningin Astridplein beside the charming zoo.  Ringing the square are several hotels, including the four star Radisson Blu Astrid.  Many jewelry shops line the surrounding streets of this international diamond capital, which has four diamond exchanges (compared to New York City’s two) and processes 80 percent of the world’s raw rocks.

From the station, it’s a half hour walk west across the city to the Old Town and the River Scheldt’s waterfront quays.  Strolling the Meir, the city’s famous pedestrian only shopping district, don’t miss Paleis Op de Meir at no. 50. The former royal palace houses a café, as well as The Chocolate Line, whose specialty, created for the Rolling Stones’ guitarist Ronnie Wood, is a dark chocolate “shooter” that’s snorted.   Steps away, visit the Rubenshuis, the art filled Renaissance style mansion and studio of favorite son, Peter Paul Rubens.

The centerpiece of the Old City, a fifteen minute walk west, is the gothic Cathedral of Our Lady, with no fewer than four Rubens masterpieces, including the harrowing “Descent from the Cross.” Just north, in St. James Church, at Lange Nieuwstraat 73-75, Rubens buffs can visit the painter’s tomb. In Antwerp’s oldest frites (fries) shop, Fritkot Max, at Groenplaats 12, order fries or the Antwerp favorite, a currywurst special, a delectable deep-fried sausage with curried ketchup and mayo.  In and around the Cathedral are some of Antwerp’s many beer bars, known as “brown bars” for walls darkened over centuries by tobacco smoke. Smoking is no longer permitted, but the interiors remain suitably dark and moody.   Order a “Bolleke,” De Koninck Brewery’s popular amber beer, at Paters Vaetje at Blauwmoezelstraat 1, or at the angel adorned Het Kathedraal Café at Torfbrug 10.

If the weather’s good, head west to the riverside quays and the Pontoon, a big floating raft where Antwerpers soak up the precious rays of the northern European sun.   A stone’s throw away is Antwerp’s oldest building, the formidable 13^th century castle Het Steen, literally “The Stone.”   For pedestrians and bicyclists, the St. Anna tunnel nearby, with its vintage wooden escalator, runs under the river to the opposite bank and the popular St. Anna’s Beach.

You could spend a whole afternoon strolling the quays but considering the city’s fashion fused DNA, head a few blocks east to the Fashion District instead.   On Nationalestraat, the domed ModeNatie – literally “ Fashion Nation”- houses MoMu fashion museum, the Flanders Fashion Institute, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts fashion department (which birthed the Antwerp Six), and  the Copyright  bookstore, where you can buy the “Antwerp Fashion Map,” listing specific shops in five areas, for about $2.50.   Nearby are top designer shops like Dries Van Noten’s Belle Epoque Modepaleis at 16 Nationalestraat.   For high fashion at lower prices, check out the second hand shop, Jutka & Riska, at Nationalestraat 87 and the Labels Inc. outlet at nearby Aalmoezenierstraat 4.

A thirty minute walk south of the Fashion District is trendy Het Zuid.  Café lined Leopold de Waelplaats Square, in front of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, remains popular though the museum is closed for renovation until 2017.  Steps away, at Verlatstraat 38, consider browsing the collection of Ann Demeulemeester, another of the Antwerp Six.  A couple dozen galleries also flourish in ’t Zuid including Antwerp’s oldest, De Zwarte Panter, going strong for 40 years at Hoogstraat 70-72-74.  Just west of the museum, and not far from the quays, explore two other major museums:  M HKA for contemporary art and FoMu for international photography.

Relax with a cold Bolleke and a snack in cafés all throughout ’t  Zuid, including those around the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, like Brasserie Nero on the street level of trendy Hotel O. Or head about a mile and a half east to the up-and-coming Zurenborg district where, on café-lined Dageraadplaats, Draakplaats and surrounding streets, you’ll find casual places like jazz café Vertigo and Café Zeezicht along with swanky spots like Dôme, a one-star Michelin restaurant known for innovative Belgian-French cuisine.  It seems no matter where you find yourself in one of the coolest cities in Europe, Antwerp will be ready to surprise you.  Naturally, that’s what the Six thought, too, as they set out to change the world of fashion not so long ago.