About half an hour by car from French-speaking Tournai is the Flemish or Dutch-speaking city of Kortrijk (or Courtrai in French), located in Northwest Belgium. I happen to love both the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia and the Dutch-speaking northern parts of Flanders even if there is strong tension among the two parts that divide the heart of this country.
I’ll start today’s tour with some background as it leads into the next blog entry about what’s consumed my time this past week. The first visit I made upon arriving in Europe some two weeks ago was to see the grandmother of my host family at the hospital…
Unfortunately I’m not a stranger to hospitals for a variety of odd maladies (and we’ll leave it at that 
), so hospitals feel somewhat familiar to me even if in foreign countries. Anyway, after a few hospital visits, she was released to her daughter’s home.
Now where was I about Kortrijk? It was known in the 1700s for being the center of flax, with its linen and damask industry leading to its economic boom. Historically it was also marked by the Battle of the Golden Spurs, an event in July 11, 1302 that took place at this spot,
during which the small Flemish army defeated the then powerful French cavalry to reclaim its land. The Kortrijk 1302 Museum cum Visitor Centre
is a good place to start any tour in this town that’s now both a mix of medieval history and modern design. The information center also provides one of the best information guides I’ve ever picked up around the world. And it’s free in several languages.
In Flemish Kortrijk you will find a smattering of old, beautiful churches
juxtaposed against modern, chic complexes like at the Buda area comprising of the Budascoop and Buda Tower:
So it’s entirely possible to be at the medieval Broel Towers one minute,
and run into some modern office building or shopping mall the next:
But what I will always remember about this city is this very spot, because just as I turn this corner to reach the entrance to the Baggaertshof and snap this photo,
we receive a phone call that the grandmother has just been rushed back to the hospital. We are told not to cut our tour short, so we continue to visit this beguinage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was established in 1638 to house destitute women. It is a small rectangular “subdivision” of 13 tiny houses swallowed by a verdant herb garden of some 200 varieties:
This is probably a fun town to visit over a leisurely weekend, but I am able to compress some of it in a short afternoon. Here are some parting shots of Kortrijk:
See you in the next town…
Tags: Baggaertshof, Battle of the Golden Spurs, Belgium, Broel Towers, Buda Scoop, Courtrai, Flanders, Kortrijk, Wallonia
Tournai is about 85km to the south of Brussels and one of the oldest cities in Belgium. As in the tradition of all places of cultural significance and economic booms, Tournai has survived the exchange of many hands from the Franks to the French to the English to the Austrians and now finally to the Belgians. You might say it has been a prime real estate king pawn in the chess game of politics for all of its existence since the third century.
But once you are in its historic center, what you mainly find is that the town, including a huge market place surrounded by historical buildings and cafes for people watching,
now rests in the shadow of a looming Romanesque-Gothic Notre Dame de Tournai cathedral,
whose ongoing renovation continues to be a massive undertaking to preserve its 12th century origins:
Here are some stats:
This cathedral
and the oldest belfry in Belgium
are both designated World Heritage Sites. Besides these main attractions, there is also a very pleasant walk along the canal’s embankment…
to the Pont des Trous…
where I find my favorite house with a completely white library behind those large windows on the second floor:
On this lovely cool day following a bit of rain, how exactly did I use some of the pieces from my suitcase?
My favorite accessory for touring a town I’ve never seen, however, is always a new flavor of sorbet .
Tags: Belgium, Notre Dame of Tournai, Pont des Trous, Tournai
So once back outside after a heady fashion rush at the MoMu, I get to loiter the cobblestoned streets of Antwerp. On this particular day it is a national holiday so the stores are closed and crowds are minimal, which actually makes it quite fun to windowshop…
and pretend to know what’s going on behind pretty doors…
The best part about Antwerp is that no matter how many times I’ve been here, there are always new corners to discover…
and random churches that harbor hidden gems such as displays of antique lace:
Best of all, even the well traveled spots in this town never get old to me!
My mind’s eye is all about colors like mustard yellow, Peruvian turquoise, clay orange, and avocado green. But by far I favor the color black for all practical intents and purposes. So Antwerp’s ModeMuseum (MoMu)’s current exhibition of BLACK. Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume (running through August 8, 2010) is right up my alley.
I’ve always liked the city of Antwerp because roads like these…
lead to the MoMu:
Beyond its traditional façade are a modern entrance
and a sunny, lofty interior:
Before you enter the main exhibition, there is a display of the MoMu Award 2010 winner Mariel Manuel’s quirky collection:
Then it’s on to a fantasy world where the color of night rules…just as I like it. Zwart is Dutch for black. And what better way to meet zwart than to be greeted at the door by this first piece, a Givenchy couture gown by Riccardo Tisci…
followed by provocative groupings of black clothing,
accessories (I especially love the leather harness in the first picture of the series below), and jewelry
by Belgian and international designers like Olivier Theyskens, Ann Demeulemeester, Victor & Rolf, and Junya Watanabe to showcase the history, evolution, and art of fashion in the context of the color of black.
I really enjoy this comparison between a McQueen and an 18th century gown…can you guess which is which?
Now you can’t possibly let me leave this entry without a nod to my favorite designer who made black de riguer, do you? Next to the simple black Chanel sheath dress, there is a quotation from a 1926 Vogue review: The Chanel “Ford:”…the frock that all the world will wear–its model “817″ of black crepe de chine…it will become a standard wardrobe component for all women of taste…” . I can’t think of a more apt or prophetic description for the little black dress.
It’s truly impossible to photograph the color of black, especially when flash photography is not permitted, so I’ll leave you with this one last shot that I tried to take a few times to capture all the details of the lace and beading used in the capes:
Tags: Ann Demeulemeester, Antwerp, Chanel, Givenchy, Junya Watanabe, Mariel Manuel, McQueen, MoMu, Theykens, Victor & Rolf
1. No vintage bags.
2. No lambskin bags.
3. No children-sized bags.
Those have been my longstanding rules in collecting bags. However, there’s an exception to every rule.
Now, you’ve seen me drag a Gucci bag across the Sahara and a Balenciaga through the snow, so you must know the road does not make a friendly companion to more precious bags, particularly the Chanel kind. So in anticipation of this summer’s trek that will involve planes, trains and automobiles, I found a couple of mini flaps that I believed would be more suitable for traveling.
This first one, a quilted, semi-circle goody from the 80s, was a no-brainer purchase since the price was just too good to resist. It has been lovingly broken in yet immaculate on the inside, so I know it will be perfect for sweltering, rainy, or any other kind of day when I don’t want to carry the Hermes I posted about the last time.
The chain is not quite long enough to wear it messenger style, but the lambskin is supple enough to hold a lot more than expected. They sure don’t make bags like this anymore! Here’s an action shot of it on some random street in Antwerp (more about this in the next entry):
It’s also a great size to double as an evening bag. I suppose after this trip the bag will get sent in for “spa services” and hopefully it will come out looking even better than ever. But the one bag from a seller in the UK is the one I had written about before I left LA…
When I finally picked it up here and saw it in person for the first time, I was hooked. How is it possible that I never gave these vintage bags a second look simply because they were not made…like yesterday?
This particular bag is probably over 15 years old and yet it looks like it’s been held maybe twice. It is in better shape than some display bags I’ve seen at the Chanel boutiques. I can wear it messenger style, by the arm by doubling the chain, or in the hand as a clutch if I hide the chain. And you know, all those lovely ladies I see around Europe in their vintage Chanel bags that show a whole spectrum of wear and tear…I’m starting to become a believer that there’s an amount of charm–a je ne sais quois if you will–to carrying bags that show as much life lived in them as in the faces of the women who wear them. If every laugh wrinkle on my face records some fantastic memory from a trip, then why not carry a lambskin bag that will witness and commemorate those memories as well?
So those are my reasons for breaking the first two rules. As for the last, I’d like to think that by carrying a smaller bag that may look more like a full-sized bag on say, a ten-year-old, I will save my shoulders from the weight of a jumbo-sized classic flap (you gals know what I mean here!). The smaller the bag, the less temptation there is to fill it up with unnecessary things that we women like to schlepp around on a daily basis.
PS: I guess this means I brought 3 bags on this trip. And yes, also an extra pair of sneakers .
Tags: Antwerp, Balenciaga, Chanel, Hermes, vintage bag
