PARIS – Belgian designer Marina Yee, one of the members of the “Antwerp Six,” died on Nov. 1.
Her death after a battle with cancer was announced by the MoMu Antwerp fashion museum.
The museum’s director Kaat Debo called Yee “an extraordinarily authentic voice in Belgian fashion” whose work was “radically honest, poetic, and always rooted in respect for both people and materials.”
“She taught us that fashion can be more than trends — a means of reflection, care, and connection,” Debo continued. “Her legacy will live on at MoMu and far beyond.”
Born in 1958 in Antwerp, Belgium, Yee went to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, part of a generation that included Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene and Dirk Bikkembergs.
She took part in the 1986 British Designer Show in London that put the group of designers on the map.
Having worked for the likes of Belgian labels Gruno & Chardin and Bassetti, she launched her own brand called “Marie” in 1986.
From 1990 onwards, Yee left fashion behind to pursue other creative avenues such as theater costumes, interior design and art.
The designer then went into teaching, first at the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc de Tournai, which is prized for its art and architecture departments. Most recently, she taught at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (KASK) in the city of Ghent and the Royal Academy of Art (or KABK) in The Hague.
She made a return to fashion in 2016 with a handful of designs reimagined from vintage fashions and introduced in Japan under the name M.Y. Collection.
The upcycling and couture-inflected label formally relaunched in 2022 and counted more than 40 stockists worldwide including Dover Street Market New York and its counterpart in Los Angeles, Ssense and SKP in Beijing.
Yee was awarded the jury prize at the 2024 Belgian Fashion Awards.
Her work will be at the heart of a 2026 exhibition on the “Antwerp Six” at MoMu Antwerp.
