Fashion is simultaneously an intensely personal and a mass phenomenon. Particular styles, concepts and visions have the ability to generate deep resonances in the lives of individuals and become movements on a global scale. Young designers are sensitive diviners of the future.

That is why, in recent years, the Fashion department of the Academy Of Fine Arts has been approached by companies in search of new strategies in concept, design and marketing.

The students of the final year of the Fashion department were asked to join in a perfume project with IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances). The specific question was to create a highly individual new concept for a perfume, disregarding existing fragrances.

"IFF is constantly striving to remain at the forefront of creativity. The best way to predict the future is to create it. It is our philosophy to associate with creative talent across many artistic fields, fashion being one of the most inspirational to the world of fragrance. It is important for us to work with the individuals who will shape the future, these relationships are enriching for our perfumers, product developers and marketeers. For all of the above reasons IFF is delighted to be partnering the Antwerp Fashion Department."

Nicolas Mirzayantz, VP of Global Business Development Fine Fragrance.The project consisted of lectures on perfume history by senior perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. The lectures described the sources of perfume, from the lavender fields of the Provence to India, Egypt and China, to the understanding of fragrance families and a glimpse of complicated formulas.