Maggy Baum

Maggy Baum (born 22 August 1931) was a Belgian designer, knitwear and textile specialist, whose knitwear collection was sold internationally in the 70s and 80s, leading her to be recognized as a pioneer in Belgian fashion.^[1] She also taught at La Cambre, the fashion school in Brussels, and published a textiles encyclopedia.

Baum was born on 22 August 1931 in Verviers, a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège known for its historic textile industry until the first half of the 20th century.^[2] Baum is retired and lives in Brussels.

Baum started her career at the end of the 1950s, when she bought a knitwear production atelier in Brussels. At the time, the Belgian fashion industry consisted of small, family-owned businesses specialized in practical garments. For a woman to launch her own brand and atelier was an exception.^[1] Her technical knowhow landed her various consulting positions. She worked with international fashion brands, such as Woolmark and designing for smaller confectionary labels such as Edel, Tat's, Faber en Mantex.^[3][4]

Baum also produced a small line of knitwear ensembles. By 1978, her "casual jersey fashion" was sold in Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, New York and Japan.^[5] On being a woman in fashion, Maggy said: “What is important is that no one imposes a style on women anymore, they’re free to choose what they wear and how they wear it.”^[3]

Baum has been credited with inventing “demnit”, a procedure that makes it possible to knit with denim-threads.^[5]

At a later stage in her career, Baum became a teacher at Brussels fashion school La Cambre, where she taught Paris-based designer Olivier Theyskens and current head of the fashion school Tony Delcampe, among many others.

In 2008, Baum co-wrote Passepoil, Piqûres et Paillettes together with colour- and fibre specialist Chantal Boyeldieu-Duyck.^[6] The publication is an encyclopedic dictionary defining over 8.000 terms from the textile industry. It took seven years to write.^[7]