PARIS – Belgian designer Marina Yee, one of many members of the “Antwerp Six,” died on Nov. 1.
Her dying after a battle with most cancers was introduced by the MoMu Antwerp style museum.
The museum’s director Kaat Debo referred to as Yee “a very genuine voice in Belgian style” whose work was “radically trustworthy, poetic, and all the time rooted in respect for each folks and supplies.”
“She taught us that style will be greater than developments — a method of reflection, care, and connection,” Debo continued. “Her legacy will dwell on at MoMu and much past.”
Born in 1958 in Antwerp, Belgium, Yee went to check on the Royal Academy of Superb Arts Antwerp, a part of a era that included Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene and Dirk Bikkembergs.
She took half within the 1986 British Designer Present in London that put the group of designers on the map.
Having labored for the likes of Belgian labels Gruno & Chardin and Bassetti, she launched her personal model referred to as “Marie” in 1986.
From 1990 onwards, Yee left style behind to pursue different inventive avenues reminiscent of theater costumes, inside design and artwork.
The designer then went into educating, first on the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc de Tournai, which is prized for its artwork and structure departments. Most not too long ago, she taught on the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (KASK) within the metropolis of Ghent and the Royal Academy of Artwork (or KABK) in The Hague.
She made a return to style in 2016 with a handful of designs reimagined from classic fashions and launched in Japan beneath the identify M.Y. Assortment.
The upcycling and couture-inflected label formally relaunched in 2022 and counted greater than 40 stockists worldwide together with Dover Avenue Market New York and its counterpart in Los Angeles, Ssense and SKP in Beijing.
Yee was awarded the jury prize on the 2024 Belgian Trend Awards.
Her work shall be on the coronary heart of a 2026 exhibition on the “Antwerp Six” at MoMu Antwerp.
