Creative Professional
of the Year 2026
Picture © Marie Monsieur
— Rafaël Adriaensens
Rafaël Adriaensens has built a career combining creative, commercial and product expertise within Belgian and international fashion. He previously worked in product development for Raf Simons, as a senior designer for Veronique Branquinho and as commercial director for Adam Kimmel, before overseeing leather goods, accessories and menswear at Ann Demeulemeester. In more recent years, he became a close creative and business partner of Marina Yee, one of the original Antwerp Six. Following Yee’s death in November 2025, Adriaensens took on the responsibility of preserving her archive and collections and continuing the work of the M.Y. Project. Through this ongoing stewardship, he is helping to safeguard Yee’s singular contribution to Belgian fashion while ensuring that her work remains accessible and relevant to new generations.
Picture © Ashley
— Dennis Vanderbroeck
Dennis Vanderbroeck is the creative director of Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck, an international spatial design practice working across fashion, music, theatre and exhibitions. His work explores the relationship between people and space, translating a highly distinctive visual language into scenography, installations and immersive environments. Over the years, SDV has collaborated with names including Rosalía, Miu Miu, Mugler, Diesel, Maison Alaïa, Dries Van Noten, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, De Nationale Opera and the Barbican Centre. In 2025 and 2026, Vanderbroeck continued to strengthen his presence within international fashion through spatial design and scenography for Diesel, Alaïa and Dries Van Noten. He also created the set design for Belgian music festival We Can Dance in 2025, further demonstrating the studio’s ability to move fluently between fashion, performance and cultural spaces.
— Geert Bruloot
Geert Bruloot is a curator, retailer and one of the key figures in the history of Belgian fashion. Together with his partner Eddy Michiels, he opened the avant-garde shoe store Coccodrillo in Antwerp in 1983, followed by Louis in 1986, a boutique devoted to Belgian designers. Bruloot played an important role in launching the Antwerp Six internationally and contributed to the establishment of the Flanders Fashion Institute in 1993. His commitment to documenting and contextualising Belgian fashion continues today. After curating Footprint: The Tracks of Shoes in Fashion at MoMu in 2015, he co-curated The Antwerp Six at the museum in 2026, marking forty years of the movement’s international breakthrough. He is also co-curator of The Only True Protest is Beauty, the inaugural exhibition at Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice.