Trends in Gent

Two weeks ago Steffi from ‘I love eco’ and I visited Gent. Gent supports green and social entrepreneurs and promote them in an eco plan of the city. We took the bike and found nice independent shops, amazing cultural hangouts, beautiful (shop) architecture and a nostalgic wash bar.

Humor and Piet,  two independent stores we discovered, share the same philosophy. They only sell only stuff they truly like themselves and embrace, next to popular commercial brands like Hay design or &K,  local, sustainable and handmade design.

The cultural hangout  ‘Feestlokaal van Vooruit’  is the renovated cultural walhalla & workspace. You can enjoy cultural events, exhibitions work or just have organic drink / lunch on the amazing roof garden from Green Bastaards. ‘Vooruit’ captured the cultural heritage and the nostalgic elements and mixed it with nowadays design.

We got a nostalgic 50-ties feeling as well at the Was bar, where you can meet friends and have a drink while they washing or trembling you cloths.

The simplistic, raw & nostalgic architecture of the concept store Twiggy was as much as impressive as their contemporary classic collection and there inspiring quotes on the hangtags: ‘ EENVOUD IS HET JUISTE MIDDEN TUSSEN TE WEINIG & TEVEEL by Joshua Reynolds’

Today was also a good day to visit the forward fashion stores:  Mud jeans, Marmod and  Today is a good day. Fairtrade Lifestyle store Hahdi unfortunately closed her doors, but will definitely continue the Store in Antwerp.

Beautiful weather and the ‘free’ music of the ‘public piano’s true the city.. made our trip a really good tripWe finished the tour with a nice Belgium beer at Mastouche ‘zomerbarak’, a pop-up terras along the canal. Unfortunately we missed the organic ‘Belgische Frieten’ because of the line up. We needed to catch the last train back home. One day was to short to explore the city. Thank you Steffi for the inspiring eco trip!