Brussels art school La Cambre Mode[s], a success story

Founded by the Antwerp-born Henry Van de Velde in 1927, La Cambre initially offered courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography ... In 1986, Francine Pairon, a Belgian fashion designer and teacher, introduced a fashion section. At that time, the textile industry was in deep trouble, and the opening of this fashion section was also a way of doing its bit to combat the crisis.

Today, many prestigious brands and haute couture houses have called on the talents of young graduates of La Cambre Mode[s]: Paco Rabanne, Saint-Laurent, … and recently Dries Van Noten, Chanel… to name but a few. The Franco-Belgian Matthieu Blazy is one of the students who studied at La Cambre Mode[s] and has already had a very successful professional career: Calvin Klein, CELINE, … and now Chanel.

But why is La Cambre Mode[s] recognized as a prestigious, world-renowned fashion school nowadays? La Cambre Mode[s] obviously trains its students in technique, but above all it wants them to be able to rethink fashion, to see further – all with a particularly audacious vision. To succeed in transmitting an emotion, a message – that’s the school’s motto. Another differentiating factor is that La Cambre Mode[s] operates on a selection basis at the start of the academic year, which means that only around 20 new students enter the prestigious fashion school each year. At other schools, the classes are often much larger, 80-100 students, offering a much less familiar environment.