Veronique Branquinho

Veronique Branquinho (born in Vilvoorde, 1973) is a Belgian fashion designer of Portuguese ancestry.

She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, from which she graduated in 1995. In 1997, she presented her first womenswear collection in Paris and in 1998 she founded her namesake brand Veronique Branquinho. She quickly rose to prominence in the international fashion scene and in 2003 she extended her brand with fall men's collection. In 2009, she decided to stop her label, as a consequence of the 2008 financial crisis, but she revived it three years later, in collaboration with Italian manufacturer Gibò (now Onward Luxury Group). This was only a brief revival, as the brand was discontinued again in 2017. Branquinho was based in Antwerp, while her runway shows took place in Paris, the last of which was shown in June 2017.

Education Branquinho studied sciences at a local high school in her native Vilvoorde, but she took evening classes in drawing and painting. She decided to pursue these creative interests and enrolled in the Saint-Luke's Academy, a Brussels high school focusing on the arts. In 1991, influenced by the success of the Antwerp Six, Branquinho decided to continue her higher education at the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She graduated from the academy in 1995.

Career After her graduation, Branquinho worked for Belgian labels such as Natan and Neuf sans Neuf, and she interned at Miu Miu, an Italian fashion house in the Prada Group. Before launching her namesake brand in 1998, she presented her very first collection in a showroom at the Paris fashion week of 1997. In 2003, she added a menswear line to her label, and in the summer of that same year she opened her own Veronique Branquinho store in Antwerp. In 2009, she was appointed artistic director of Delvaux, a Belgian brand of luxury leather goods. After three years, Branquinho revived her namesake brand in collaboration with Onward Luxury Group, presenting her Spring-Summer 2013 womenswear collection at the Paris fashion week in 2012. For the latter she designed a series of handbags and stockings, and a series of DIY sewing and knitting pattern. In 2007, she guest-curated the fashion periodical A Magazine. She also held a teaching position as a professor at the fashion department of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna from 2005 to 2009. To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of her label, the MoMu Fashion Museum in Antwerp organised the retrospective exhibition MOI, VERONIQUE. BRANQUINHO TOuTe NUe in 2008. Finally, in 2010, Branquinho was awarded the Wallpaper Design Award for best new recruit for her work at Delvaux.