Fashioning Belgium examines Belgian fashion from the founding of Belgium in 1830 to the arrival of the Antwerp Six in 1980. By studying a wealth of previously unexplored archives and understanding how Belgium's colonial history intersected with its fashion and textile trade, this project proposes to shed new light on an understudied topic. Much has been written about contemporary Belgian fashion, but little is known about how the nascent Belgian nation shaped, and was shaped by, its large fashion and textile industry. Fashioning Belgium has three main objectives: 1. To trace the dynamic contours of the Belgian fashion and textile industry from 1830-1980 in order to nuance the prevailing scholarship that places Belgian fashion in the long shadow of Paris; 2. To understand the economic and social entanglements between the Belgian Congo and the Belgian fashion and textile industry; 3. To encourage and support Fashion Studies scholarship in Belgium.