Twenty designers from Spain, Belgium and Hungary were asked to create a dress in dialogue with the work of an important writer from their respective countries (or, in the case of Spain, language). For instance: Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Hugo Claus, Amélie Nothomb and Magda Szabó.

It’s a dialogue between designer and author, then, but also between the three countries, one which currently holds the presidency of the European Union (Spain) and the others the next two in line.

After the great success of similar exhibitions in Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul and Milan, Brussels’ city hall now hosts this intriguing show with dresses belonging to one of four literary categories: Latin American, Female, Characters or Poetry. The dresses are stunning in themselves, but get a whole new dimension when linked to a passage or a poem. It’s hard to decide where to look first: at the dress and guess the book, or at the passage on which the dress was based and see how the designer interpreted it.

Seeing such a tangible display of the emotions from Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude or what Flemish designer Anna Heylen does with fabric to illustrate a Stefan Hertmans poem is sometimes poignant and, in nearly every case, reveals how cultures view their own literature. My personal favourite was the wild, curvy frills of grey tulle by Spanish designer Amaya Arzuaga, whose take on Maria Zambrano’s Delirium and Destiny: A Spaniard in Her Twenties seems spot on.

Chances are you will fall in love with a dress, and, although most of them are one-of-a-kind, some local designers made a few extras, available in their own stores.