Marina Yee

Marina Yee was born in Antwerp in 1958. She is best known as one of the Antwerp Six, the group of Belgian designers who changed the way the world looked at fashion in the 1980s. But unlike some of her peers, who built larger labels and chased international expansion, she has always chosen a quieter path.

She studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, starting in 1978 and finishing in 1981. Those years were formative. The Academy itself was just beginning to build its reputation, and Antwerp was not a fashion city at all. It was a place known for diamonds and for being a port, not for catwalks. Yet within the classrooms of the Academy a new generation was shaping ideas that would soon grab attention far beyond Belgium.

By 1986 Yee and five classmates — Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Dirk Van Saene — rented a truck, filled it with their collections, and drove to London. They presented at the British Designer Show. The moment became a piece of fashion folklore. Critics were surprised, sometimes confused, but they paid attention. The Antwerp Six were born and Antwerp itself was placed firmly on the fashion map.

Marina Yee’s contribution within that group was different. While others developed stronger commercial identities, she often stepped aside from the main stage. She worked from a modest studio, sometimes with her creative partner Raf, often in spaces that doubled as her living area. She admitted to feeling disillusioned with the relentless pace of seasonal fashion. Instead of forcing herself into that cycle, she chose slower projects. She taught design. She made costumes for theatre and opera. She even ran a café where people could gather, drink coffee, and look at clothes. That kind of blending of community and creativity reflected her values.

Her design language was always focused on reuse / upcycling. Old fabrics, vintage garments, second-hand coats — these were the raw materials she preferred. She rebuilt them into something new, sometimes asymmetric, sometimes layered, always personal. In 2018 she launched the “M.Y. Project” in Tokyo, showing reconstructed coats and shirts that had been reworked from menswear. The details included origami-like folds, hand embroidery, and sturdy cottons. These pieces felt humble at first glance but revealed extraordinary craft the closer you looked.

Her team has always been small. In recent years she described it as just four people: Raf, her son who manages the finances, and two others. That is all. No factory. No international headquarters. Just a small group keeping her work alive on her own terms.

This independence has become her legacy. Collectors prize her pieces because they are rare and because they clearly carry her hand in them. She influenced younger designers who now speak about sustainability and authenticity, long before those words became fashionable. She remains a quiet example of how to resist the noise of an industry that so often rewards speed over care.

Marina Yee may not be as widely known as Dries Van Noten or Ann Demeulemeester, but her role within the Antwerp Six was and is essential. She represents another side of avant-garde fashion. Not spectacle, but patience. Not endless novelty, but careful reconstruction. Her work is less about chasing trends and more about telling stories with fabric that has lived before.