Five female icons of the Belgian art world: Isabelle de Borchgrave
Belga English paints the portraits of five renowned female artists from Belgium – in words. Today we look at Isabelle de Borchgrave, who obtained global fame with her extraordinary paper costumes, often inspired by grand figures from the past: from Marie Antoinette to Frida Kahlo. De Borchgrave passed away last year, leaving behind a legacy that will never crumple.
When Isabelle de Borchgrave died last October at the age of 78, the news of her death made waves in the global art world. In an extensive obituary, the New York Times honoured her efforts to “trace sartorial history with paper”.
“An artist and designer, she transformed simple craft paper into elaborate trompe l’oeil confections, creating stunning life-size reproductions of period garments,” the American newspaper wrote.
The Belgian artist, born in the Brussels municipality of Etterbeek in 1946 as Isabelle Jacobs, found her true calling in New York, during a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994. By that time, she already had her own fashion and interior design studio in Brussels but was struggling with the commercial dimension of the work.
At the Met, she had a “complete shock seeing this wonderful exhibition on fashion and furniture in the 18th century”, she told Belgium is Design magazine a few years ago.
“I was overwhelmed by it and started getting obsessed with antique fabrics,” she explained. “I wanted those dresses, but couldn’t have them. I kept thinking about how I could recreate them.”
"Paper gives you freedom. It endures better against light and time"
Back in Belgium, De Borchgrave found a way to satisfy this obsession. She started recreating period garments with cheap paper, like craft paper or the pattern paper used by dressmakers. She had worked with the material before but now started to elevate her skills to make trompe l’oeil gems.
To give the material the softness of fabric, she would crumple and iron the paper repeatedly. After constructing the piece, she would apply her painting abilities to mimic the looks of satin, silk, leather, pearls and lace.
“Paper gives you freedom,” she said in an interview with Vogue, adding that it also is more resistant than fabric. “It endures better against light and time, with the only issue being humidity.”
De Borchgrave’s art first enchanted the wider public in 1998, when her exhibition Papiers à la Mode or Paper in Fashion was set up at the Musée de l’Impression sur Etoffes in Mulhouse, France.
In this collection, which grew as it toured the world for years, she collaborated with the Canadian costume designer Rita Brown to cover 300 years of fashion history. She created paper recreations of costumes of grand figures such as Marie Antoinette, Queen Elizabeth I and Coco Chanel. In Türkiye, she added Ottoman Empire caftans to the collection.
Her growing fame led to high-profile commissions, including in the US. In 2004, the department stores Marshall’s in Chicago asked her to replicate Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown in paper, as the original had become too dusty and fragile.
High-profile clients
De Borchgrave also created prestigious new pieces for prominent clients, such as a painted paper dress for Queen Fabiola of Belgium which she wore at the wedding of Prince Felipe of Spain.
Her second and third major collections delved into the fashion history of Italy. In Mariano Fortuny, she focused on 19th-century Venice. In I Medici, she set up an installation of famous Florentine figures in ceremonial dresses of the Renaissance.
In a later collection, Les Ballets Russes, she paid tribute to founder Sergei Diaghilev and the many renowned artists who designed for the iconic ballet company. Among them were Pablo Picasso, Léon Bakst and Henri Matisse.
A few years ago, De Borchgrave presented what was to be her last major collection, Miradas de Mujeres or The Gaze of Women, inspired by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. She got the idea after a client asked her to recreate Kahlo’s Tehuana dresses, in the style of traditional clothing worn by Mexico’s Indigenous people.
"I wanted those dresses, but couldn’t have them. I kept thinking about how I could recreate them"
Though her commission was cancelled, De Borchgrave still decided to immerse herself fully in Kahlo’s world and convey it in her own way. Using over 4km of paper and cardboard, she made dresses, carpets, furniture, trees and other elements to recreate the universe of the Mexican artist, with the famous Casa Azul as the central scene.
“People have always talked about her tragic life, her illness, her misfortunes, but not so much about her side as a flirtatious and super feminine woman who never left the house without dressing up and who enjoyed life despite adversity,” De Borchgrave told Magazine Horse when describing the vision she conveyed in the exhibition.
Apart from her paper creations, De Borchgrave continued to paint and sculpt. She often collaborated with big fashion brands such as Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Hermès, Villeroy & Boch, Pierre Frey, Lanvin and Caspari. She also created designs for wallpaper, curtains and tableware.
De Borchgrave was married to Count Werner de Borchgrave d’Altena. After their wedding in 1975, she became a countess, though it’s said that she never actually used the title.
Isabelle de Borchgrave in 2011 © BELGA PHOTO VIRGINIE LEFOUR
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