8-year-old
6.30AM My partner, Patrick, and I live in an old house in Belgium that was built in 1840, and is out in the countryside between Antwerp and Brussels. We moved there about 20 years ago because we were looking for a house with a slightly bigger garden than the one where we were living at the time. Patrick and I collect antiques, which we have around our home. Well, technically we don’t collect—we buy things we like, things that just speak to us. On Saturdays, we like to go to Brussels and search the markets, and we often buy pieces in Paris. We also use a lot of the antiques we find in our stores. In fact, the last thing I bought for myself, an artwork by André Bogaert, ended up in our new store in Hong Kong. We have countless pieces in our home, though—it’s a big house and it’s quite full. I collect objects I fall in love with more than antiques per se. Value is not a criteria that attracts me to something. 7AM The house has very big windows because it was built as a summer home, so it’s not the most practical house. When we wake up depends on the seasons; in the summer, we get out of bed quite early. Of course, when the weather is nice and the dog is beside your bed and wants to have a walk, you want to get out of bed. We have an eight-year-old Airedale terrier named Harry who sleeps in our bedroom. 7.30AM My morning routine varies by how much time I have. In the winter, I like to take baths, but in the summer, I prefer a good shower with some soap and then maybe some moisturiser afterward. I use D. R. Harris and Geo. F. Trumper products, which we also stock at our shops in Paris and Antwerp. For breakfast, I usually have a slice of bread with some homemade jam made from fruit from the garden; the type of jam depends on what particular fruit is being harvested. I learned how to make it from my mother. She always said, “You have to use everything the garden gives you,” so when we moved into this house and grew the big garden, I started to make jam. I make it in big batches and give jars away to family and friends. We have a large garden with different sections: There’s a rose garden, a dahlia garden, a peony garden. We have quite a lot of flowers—in all modesty, the number of varieties we have is too many to count! 8.30AM Most of the time, Patrick and I commute into Antwerp together, which takes about 40 minutes. I like to listen to Studio Brussel, a pop radio station in Belgium, in the car. They play a big variety of new music, which helps when I have to decide music for the fashion shows. If I hear something I like, I quickly Shazam it. When the weather is really nice, I ride