By now you know that when it comes to trawling a new city, Instagram is usually our first stop and always-trusty resource for finding new closets to dig through. There's no rabbit hole quite like it—give us 20 minutes and we'll give you a Camera Roll littered with screenshots. It's precisely how, upon finding ourselves in Antwerp for the first time ever with a handful of free days, we stumbled across Ramon Ehlen, menswear buyer at Renaissance, a massive multi brand luxury boutique smack dab in the heart of the city. In other words? Mission, accomplished.
Welcoming us into his brand new apartment, Ehlen was every part the welcoming host type—he was especially eager to share with us the insanely-curated rolling rack that serves as his wardrobe; a deliberate mix of KTZ, Givenchy, Saint Laurent, Off-White and Acne Studios. Ehlen's a massive supporter of buzzy newcomers, too—from Vetements (he was meeting with their team in Amsterdam the next day) and Faith Connexion (made up of the former design team from Balmain, he told us). Working in fashion since the ripe old age of 16, Ehlen's sort of done and seen it all—with the wardrobe to match, too.
As we styled his items around his sparse new space, Ehlen filled us in on everything from the Belgian fashion scene—the Yeezys had just dropped at Renaissance that week, with a line inching around the block for days prior—and his penchant for all Comme des Garçons everything fragrances. For his final portraits, we took to the cobblestone streets for a few shots in an ancient (his words!) Rick Owens jacket that he swore up and down only gets better with wear and tear (we concur, BTW). Trust when we say that next time we're in Ehlen's territory, we're skipping the Instagram stalking in favor of his recommendations.
