Belgian designer Marina Yee, member of Antwerp Six, dies age 67

Belgian designer Marina Yee, member of the Antwerp Six collective that revolutionized fashion in the 1980s, has died at the age of 67, the Antwerp Fashion Museum announced on Sunday.

“Her name is inextricably linked to the legendary Antwerp Six collective, which put Belgian fashion on the world map,” the museum emphasized.

In 1986, six young Flemish designers, graduates of the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, packed their creations into a van and set off to conquer London’s “British Designer Show.”

Because their names were nearly unpronounceable outside Belgium, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Marina Yee, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, and Dirk Bikkembergs came to be known as the Antwerp Six.

Their sober, raw, and deconstructed designs stood in stark contrast to an era dominated by sequins and shoulder-padded jackets.

Since then, these designers have experienced varied fortunes—from the relative anonymity of Marina Yee to the international success of Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, celebrated from Tokyo to New York, and Dirk Bikkembergs, whose T-shirts and sneakers were embraced by athletes.

Before Yee’s death from cancer, the Antwerp Fashion Museum had already planned to dedicate an exhibition to the Antwerp Six in 2026, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their international breakthrough.