LARS MERTENS REWRITES THE RULES OF MENSWEAR

Belgian designer Lars Mertens fuses storytelling, craft and colour into a vision that resists labels and sparks imagination.

Lars Mertens Menswear

Indeed, menswear has always danced between rules and rebellion. At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, designer Lars Mertens is shaping an approach grounded in curiosity and freedom.

Refusing Boundaries

Labels Don’t Define Him

Labels don’t interest Mertens. “I try not to label my work with words like ‘romantic’, ‘sporty’, or ‘minimal’ because I want to explore all those things on my own. That’s where I find my freedom.”

Evolution Over Time

Once loud and colourful, his collections have grown more refined, but experimentation remains constant.

Each season questions the idea of a fixed style, pushing boundaries while staying true to his vision.

Building Characters Through Cloth

Imagined Personas with Lars Mertens

Each collection begins not with a market persona, but with an imagined character whose world Mertens builds from scratch. “I mostly start on the internet … but it’s more satisfying to find good imagery in books, magazines, or museums. Inspiration is everywhere, but you have to look.”

The Night Gardener

Subsequently, he merged the image of a gardener with William, a boy from a children’s story. “I wanted to work with his curiosity.” As a result, the outerwear became a study in exploration and wonder, imagination meeting function.

Moments of Inspiration

Moreover, his process is guided by chance and observation: a Milan gallery visit, a photograph by Guido Guidi, or an image discovered on the street. “Inspiration is everywhere… if you’re paying attention.”

Fluid Concepts and Fabric

Significantly, a concept, for Mertens, is never fixed. “It begins with a trigger, a painting, an image, and ends with the final styling before the runway. It keeps evolving; it must make sense in your story.” Furthermore, each stage, from sketch to fitting, feeds the narrative.

“Material to me is everything.” Rather than sketching, he drapes fabric straight onto the mannequin, discovering shape and movement in real time, fabric as playground, process as poetry.

Artwork by Lars Mertens

Craft and Collaboration

Indeed, craftsmanship and collaboration are his foundation. “Working with artisans makes a design richer, more refined.” Meanwhile, Mertens’ countryside atelier offers quiet and space, a slower rhythm that lets textures and colours breathe, grounding his creativity in calm precision.

Designing Emotion

For Lars Mertens, design is as much about feeling as it is about form. “Designing should be fun. I like to make people dream.” Each collection tells a story, but once it reaches its audience, the narrative transforms. “I create a story, but once it’s shown, it’s theirs too, half my story, half theirs.”

LARS MERTENS

Significantly, Mertens thrives in the spaces between categories, between fabric and story, countryside and city, curiosity and craft. As a result, his refusal to label or rush defines his practice and sets it apart.

“I don’t do retail yet … people can find me on Instagram, where I share my pieces and process. As long as I can share creativity, that’s what makes me happiest.”

Fashion, for Mertens, is freedom, and freedom, after all, is the point.

Follow him on Instagram at @larsmertns.

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