History

A family company par excellence, the house of Harry De Vlaminck has always, throughout the ages, succeeded in offering good clothes of the fashion. This wonderful history begins with Joseph De Vlaminck, employed in “the black” as a piece-worker at the house of Severin, with an establishment on a street in Brussels. This is in 1905 and this house specialised in (tailored) ready-to-wear for ceremonies, blazers, dinner jackets and other frock coats.

1920: Franz De Vlaminck (Joseph’s son) became a tailor at the “closed house”, Rue de l’Hôtel des Monnaies in Saint-Gilles. Following his early death in a car accident, his son Harry (a great sportsman who was notably distinguished for his swimming), then 25 years of age, took the reins, after having finished school with flying colours at the school of “Arts & Design”.

1958: On the occasion of the World Exhibition, Harry opened a shop (with a ready-to-wear workshop) on the Boulevard de Waterloo. This was the first fashion boutique to open on this main road in Brussels (at this time, only the jeweller Sturbelle has a shop window on the Boulevard, which did not yet have its “tunnel” or its “Hilton”).

 In the beginning, the house only sold its own bespoke clothes and a few ties, waterproofs and ready-to-wear coats. A few years later, the current managers – Jacques and Eric De Vlaminck (Harry’s sons) invested in the family business and started the same of top of the range ready-to-wear menswear. Jacques and Eric have always travelled very much in order to keep up-to-date with the latest trends and to find the best brands. They also followed training as tailors in England (with Kilgur & Stanburry on Savile Row) and, in Paris, worked at Charles Austen and André Bardot (who dressed Jean Marais, Aznavour, Claude François…). The triumvirate Harry-Jacques-Eric are dedicated to developing and perpetuating the spirit of traditional craftsmanship of the profession of Merchant Tailor, to remain one of the very few in Belgium today. Over the years, the range has diversified and De Vlaminck offers both tailored clothes made in its own workshops and ready-to-wear clothes with a semi-tailored service from other prestigious brands like Brioni (the world reference in fashion to order), Ermenegildo Zegna and Scabal. There are also products from Loro Piana, Van Laack, Bogner, Malo, Cucinelli, Testoni, Scabal… De Vlaminck thereby obtained the favour of a loyal customer base which includes top politicians and industrialists.