Bianca, the Commercial Director as the Co-Curator

Fashion Museum Hasselt has invited Bianca Quets Luzi (Genk, Belgium) as co-curator for its current show Memory is Home: Fashion, Memory & Togetherness. Her curatorial task, grounded in a long career as a senior economist and head of commercial, and self-guided by her pure and celestial perception of regional talents orbiting around fashion, delivers imagery, objects and design worth visiting in Hasselt until January 2027.

Not always sitting in an office chair as you might imagine, but mostly en route away from the desk, executive responsibilities can sometimes limit the operational scope of any commercial director, but clearly not Bianca’s. On the contrary, they have expanded what we might at first think is a solemn position into a boundless role during markets and sales campaigns. Uninterrupted travel between meetings for the various departments and the complex agenda of welcoming buyers from all over the world has rewarded her with joyful experiences, stemming from profitable collaborations and partnerships (Kvadrat and Adidas remain the strongest).

“For me, it was important to showcase the exceptional talents of these Limburg creatives: people who helped build the international fashion world, both in front of and behind the scenes. Their stories, encounters and friendships are thetrue driving force behind everything you see in fashion. Fashion is so much more than a show, a logo or a face. As a good Limburg friend once put it: no me, without we. With Memory is Home, I want to inspire young people and show how essential collaboration is. Especially in a digital era where we are constantly connected, yet often feel further apart from one another.”  – Bianca Quets Luzi

Working with and for Raf Simons since 2008 as CEO, she has been shaped by two central themes of communication and commerce, unified here by the idea of exporting a legacy. This has given her an intellectual understanding, generated through discussions about the development of talent under full and constant discipline. Since she has always kept devising the promotion of key local professionals from Belgian Limburg as a central focus, we come to a point where we can ask: hasn’t her role within the European industry successfully transcended non-casual talent matching, well before true romance in fashion collapsed into digitally flat collabs?

Through this serious working axis and with her natural fascination for professionals in action behind-the-scenes, it is right there when Bianca reaches the moment to have the privilege of crediting them – and for us. Those she has always cherished, not only superlative names, are now shared and on display in a nontraditional setting at Hasselt’s museum.

The administration and editing of so much regional talent from Belgian Limburg for this show, all of them influenced by a common landscape, have reinforced the shaping of the leading and corporative woman she is today. Museums, foundations, or cultural funds couldn’t be happier to have her around, as she is very aware of the quality standards found in Belgian soil, the right place to build a safe home for fashion. Will a Raf Simons museum soon rise from the same ground? Leave it to Bianca’s continuation, TBC.

The exhibition unveils previously untold and personal stories from (*): Raf Simons, Olivier Rizzo, Hannelore Knuts, Inge Grognard, Martin Margiela, Jenny Meirens, Myriam Vanheusden, Bert Houbrechts, Els Arnols, Elke Bernaers, Chloë Reners, Marleen Daniëls, Souâd Feriani, Jordy Arthur, Dirk Bikkembergs, Marina Yee, Laetitia Jeurissen, and Bianca Luzi the co-curator herself. (*) no one of them reached the top alone.

– OG

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