The Antwerp-based designer has been building a name for her playful and distinctive take on femininity. One to keep on your radar.
Julie Kegels launched her eponymous womenswear label in 2024 after graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts and gaining experience at Alaïa in Paris. In just a few seasons, she has developed a distinctive visual language built around contrast, transformation and the many roles women move through every day.
Rather than designing for one fixed idea of femininity, Kegels creates clothes for different female archetypes: the businesswoman, the party girl, the woman in control and the woman who wants to escape that role entirely. Her collections often place polished tailoring next to exposed lingerie, familiar silhouettes alongside unexpected proportions and elegance beside something slightly strange.
That tension gives the clothes their personality. A skirt can shift, a jacket can transform and a carefully styled look can appear entirely different from one angle to the next. The result feels playful and surreal, but remains wearable — a balance that has quickly attracted international attention.
In 2026, Kegels was named one of nine finalists for the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, placing her among Europe’s most closely watched emerging talents. With Antwerp still at the centre of her practice, Julie Kegels is proving that femininity can be intelligent, humorous and entirely her own.
