Mon Col Anvers

Antwerpen · Belgium

Eva Juchtmans

“Why buy a dress to wear to just one party if you can choose a piece of clothing you can wear to different occasions and adapt to your mood and personal style?”

Every style at Mon Col Anvers is sketched and designed by Eva Juchtmans, collars included, and she picks the fabric for each one. A pattern maker draws the patterns. She built the fabric supplier and producer relationships herself, and she runs the online shop herself. She did not train in fashion. She studied history and international politics, worked in corporate businesses, then went to work for a fashion designer, and she already knew how to sew before she started the women's clothing label in 2016.

I have three questions for you, and something in return.

Three questions.

Selected pieces

Rosas Jumpsuit Blue Zebra

Green Organic Cotton Sweater

€50ledge price

Mon Col Anvers Clothing · Antwerpen, Belgium

The collar she borrowed from menswear

Mon Col Anvers is women's clothing built to be worn three ways: collar off, collar on, collar reversed. Eva Juchtmans designs every style in Antwerpen, sewn in Poland and Portugal.

Eva Juchtmans took one detail out of 19th century menswear: a collar made to come off. She carried it into women's clothing and built a label on it. Mon Col Anvers started on blouses and nothing else.

Where the collar went next

The detail did not stay on the blouses. The range now covers dresses, jumpsuits, trousers, skirts, shorts, t-shirts and knitwear, and of the 178 pieces live today, 58 name a collar in their own description. On the Aero jumpsuit the reverse of the collar is cut in organic jeans fabric, so the neckline changes cloth when it is turned over. Each season Eva Juchtmans adds a few new styles and re-runs the ones that sell in a different fabric.

If I can design the pieces, if I know my fabrics, there are people that can make patterns for me that studied for years just to make the patterns. I don't have to do every aspect of the thing myself.
Eva Juchtmans

Who does which part

She works with seven to nine fabric suppliers in a season and reviews physical samples before a run goes into production. Most of the sewing is done in Poland, and the sweaters and t-shirts are made in Portugal through an agency. Her contact in Poland photographs a finishing question when one comes up and emails the picture over. She has changed production partners three times.

After it leaves the shop

A piece can also be borrowed. Mon Col Rental runs with Dressr for ten calendar days at a time, cleaning included, and 69 of the pieces live now are tagged for it. Otherwise it is sold through her own shop, six boutiques around Belgium, and a showroom at Draakstraat 17 in Antwerpen that opens by appointment.