Exhibition: GIRLS at Fashion Museum MoMu in Antwerp

Girlhood is not a phase to be outgrown, but a state on its own. In this review, I explore GIRLS at the fashion museum MoMu in Antwerp, an exhibition that reframes girlhood beyond stereotypes. The exhibition treats girls not as muses or symbols, but as independent subjects with agency, desire, and voice. Through fashion, film, photography, and art, the show reveals how girlhood is represented, self-shaped, and experienced across eras and media.

Moving from Degas’ ballerina to Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides, from Simone Rocha’s subversive white dresses to the unsettling sweetness of Jenny Fax, the exhibition uncovers the tension between innocence and rebellion, fantasy and reality, nostalgia and zeitgeist. This review examines how artists and designers like Louise Bourgeois, Frida Orupabo, Ashley Williams, and Chopova Lowena materialize the fleeting, contradictory, and deeply affective state of being a girl—and why the “in-between” is not only a phase of transition.

EXHIBITION
GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between
27.09.2025 - 01.02.2026
MoMu Antwerp

00:00 Intro
00:30 The Exhibition
00:59 Representation in Art
02:04 Ballet
02:37 The Feeling of Being a Girl
03:35 Fashion
04:27 White Dresses
04:58 Preserved in Art
05:43 Ambivalences

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