With 20 to watch, Flanders DC presents twenty emerging talents, who recently took their first steps in the worlds of design or fashion. We believe they will have great success in the future.

Who is Pol Vogels?

• graduated from the fashion academy of Sint-Niklaas
• designed the outfit for Princess Delphine for the 2022 National Day
• also works as a team leader in a made-to-measure company

It is very difficult for me to draw inspiration from something that I don't feel 100% about. My costumes were based on the Binche carnival. We have so much Belgian culture and so many good artists; just think of Magritte or Roger Raveel. It makes sense to me to stay very close to myself or my environment. Because that way, I always make something sincere. My pigeon-inspired collection is largely a reference to my grandfather and dad, who are both pigeon fanciers. And my new designs with the canaries are also partly about my father, as he worked in the Limburg coal mines. That narrative aspect is very important to me.

I first studied architecture, and a building takes a huge amount of time. Now, I can make a sketch and put down a whole silhouette in a few days. I still find that very enchanting. I also learned that I need to feel happy to make things myself. My mother took her own life a year ago, and I had lost the childishness of my previous collections. But I feel the playfulness coming back.

Now that I have officially graduated, the stakes are also higher. I want to launch my first collection, and maybe also my only one if it doesn’t catch on. I am thinking of 2025. But what should it look like? And who will my target audience be? Should I focus solely on haute couture, for example, or should I be more commercial? I’m still toying with those questions. Of course, every designer’s dream is that you can combine the two.