Hasselt (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Hasselt hosts the first Fashion and Design Hasselt with 60 designers from Belgium and abroad. Main venues include Z33, the Fashion Museum, and the PXL-MAD campus, with Jordy Arthur among the participants.
As VRT News reported, from October 23 to 26, 2025, Hasselt will host the 1st edition of Fashion & Design Hasselt, a 4-day event that will turn the city into a showcase for international fashion and design. The program is free of charge and features a wide range of exhibitions, lectures, live performances, and curated displays at several key venues.
Well-known names such as Hannelore Knuts, Too Franken, Bram Kerkhofs, Lore Langendries, Colin van Eeckhout, Charlotte Adigéry, Mitchel Else, Jordy Arthur, and Souad Feriani will be among those presenting their work.
Kunstenhuis Z33 will focus on talks and presentations, while the Hasselt Fashion Museum will stage 2 major exhibitions. Huis Hoste, Dorp 37, and a vacant building on Aldestraat will be redesigned as spaces for curated showcases.
“It’s going to be an event unlike any Hasselt has seen in a long time,”
Says designer Jordy Arthur, who helped organise the event.
“Hasselt, unjustly, remains somewhat under the radar as a fashion city, even though we’re a major international player. Everyone was immediately enthusiastic about participating in this event, especially within the existing network of Limburg designers, where a wealth of talent is lurking.”
How will Fashion and Design Hasselt, with 60 designers, enhance the city’s international profile?
Pad Koloniale Waren will serve as the central meeting point, with a full program running across the 4 days and a Saturday evening party combining music and design. The Classic Design Market at the PXL-MAD campus will highlight vintage and collectable works, creating a link between historical design and contemporary creativity.
Kathleen Bosmans of Visit Hasselt confirmed that the idea for the festival started during Belgian Fashion Week last year. She explained that the event has now grown into a 4-day program with an international scope.
Around 60 designers will travel to Hasselt to showcase their work, take part in talks, and lead workshops. Designers from New York and Milan will join Belgian participants, bringing global perspectives to the city’s creative stage.
Local officials say the event will strengthen Hasselt’s position in fashion and design. Tourism Alderman Rik Dehollogne (N-VA) noted that the city is already home to young designers as well as established names. He described Hasselt as a “city of taste” where fashion is an important part of its identity.
Dehollogne said the festival will help build a stronger design community while putting Hasselt on the map as a fashion destination. The official Fashion & Design Hasselt website contains information on program details and locations, and supplies fully informed information regarding the schedule.
In the 15th century, Hasselt had a very recognisable relationship to the fashion industry because a large part of the local economy was tied to textile manufacturing. In 1536, the city had approximately 200 master weavers and the textiles produced about 15% of its workforce. This crafting tradition of craftsmanship established the foundation for the establishment of the Modemuseum Hasselt in 1988; it is the only museum in the Low Countries, and only one of the few dedicated to clothing and fashion objects.
Currently, the museum holds a collection of over 18,000 outfits and accessories, and its mission is to archive western fashion from the year 1750, and up until the contemporary moment, with a focus on both historic couture garments and contemporary fashion designers and practices based in the Limburg region.
Brussels Morning is a daily online newspaper based in Belgium. BM publishes unique and independent coverage on international and European affairs. With a Europe-wide perspective, BM covers policies and politics of the EU, significant Member State developments, and looks at the international agenda with a European perspective.
