Visit Belgium's fashion capital Antwerp

A lesser known fact about the picturesque city of Antwerp is its status as the Belgian capital of fashion.

The city is home to a burgeoning young fashion scene, as well as the internationally successful brands, such as Dries Van Noten.

The so-called Antwerp six were responsible for putting the city on the fashion map, taking their designs to London in the 1980s and creating their internationally successfully brands in the following decades.

The most famous shopping street in the city is Meir, a large traffic-free avenue lined with beautiful historic buildings near the Central station.

Since 2002 the fashion centre of Antwerp has been the ModeNatie, a unique building in the historic centre of Antwerp.

ModeNatie is home to the Flanders Fashion Institute, a museum that houses a diverse collection of clothing, lace, embroidery and fabrics from the southern Netherlands.

The oldest items at the museum date back to the 16th century, but it also has regular exhibitions of more modern fashion. The museum has been closed over the summer and will reopen on September 8th.

The same area is also home to the Antwerp Fashion Academy, which has an annual show every summer, which brings in more than 6,000 international visitors to the city.

There are late deals available for holidaymakers who would like a take advantage of a weekend city break and sample the shopping, culture and style of Belgium's second biggest city.

Eurostar tickets to Brussels are valid for onward travel to anywhere in Belgium, so getting there by train is easy.

The journey takes three hours and 45 minutes and has one change at Brussels-Midi station.

Shortbreaks.com has a weekend city break (two sharing for two nights) to Antwerp for £159 per person, at the three-star Hotel Eden, which is close to the designer shops of the Keyserlei.

Alternatively, if you want to stay in more luxurious accommodation the four-star Hilton costs £189 per person for a break starting September 29th and £159 per person for the same trip on October 20th 2006.

For more information see www.short-breaks.com

Antwerp is also famous for being the home of the master painter Rubens as well as a centre for the diamond industry. Read travelbite's Antwerp city guide to find out more.