Leading his luxury brand Maison Ullens, he was also a patron, philanthropist, and collector of contemporary art. This Belgian friend of many hats was murdered by her husband’s son on March 29 in Lasne.
The news shakes the flat country. Baroness Miriam Ullens de Schutten Wethnall, 70, founder of luxury brand Maison Ullens, was murdered outside her home by her 57-year-old stepson Nicolas Ullens on March 29 in Lasnay, a peaceful country town south of Brussels. While she was driving her car alongside her husband, Guy Ullens of Shuten Wetnal, the latter opened fire six times on the car, fatally hitting her and injuring her husband. A crime that was committed “in the context of a family conflict, particularly of a financial nature”, is mentioned in a press release on the floor of the Valon Brabant parquet floor, reports AFP. And who does not miss the main pages of Belgium, where the rich baroness gained a reputation as a touchy-feely girlfriend?
And for good reason, her eclectic trajectory has combined pastry, contemporary art and philanthropy before finally leading her into fashion. In 2009, Miriam Ullens launched a wardrobe tailored to her lifestyle across five continents; opulent pieces with refined elegance, as easy to wear to a vernissage as to get on a sailboat. He gained fame for his reversible “traveler’s outfit” made of cashmere or silk knits, and established himself in cities synonymous with luxury: Paris, New York and Aspen. Or the beginning, as some call it on the other side of the Atlantic, “quiet luxury“.
To bring her vision to life in the Maison Ullens collections, the baroness surrounds herself with big names. Finally, Maison Ullens recently appointed Antwerp designer Christian Weinants as artistic director. Naturally, the pointed proposition attracts figures from all walks of life, such as Queen Mathilda, with whom he is close, or Melania Trump. The fledgling fashion baroness had built a clientele with her image of a woman of the world with an extraordinary destiny.
business woman and man
Lechien was born in Cologne on September 23, 1952, Miriam moved to Belgium at the age of 15. His father is a career soldier and sends him to a boarding school there. Turning to entrepreneurship, after graduation he started Small salada ready meal delivery company, before opening sweet a high-end pastry shop in the capital of Belgium. In 1999, eight years after their meeting, about which few details are known, she became the second wife of Baron Guy Ullens of Shuten Wethnall.
The latter, who had four children from his first marriage, including Nicolas Ulens de Schuten, is a wealthy businessman from a powerful family that is both aristocratic and industrial. Coming from one of the noble and wealthy families of Brussels dynasties, the baron took over the reins of the family business in 1973; Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, the Belgian sugar leader. When it was sold in 1989, he invested in the Artal Luxembourg holding and became its chairman. The year he joined Myriam Lechien, the group acquired Weight Watchers and the Albert children’s clothing brand. An achievement that, however, does not foreshadow a change in the latter’s fashion, as after marriage the couple decide to devote themselves entirely to their common passion, contemporary art.
Works of art and good works
The rest of the story is written in Asia for Miriam Ullens. First in China, where the activities of her husband, an art collector and well-versed in the burgeoning scene in the region in the 1990s, regularly lead her. The two founded the Ulens Center for Contemporary Art (Ucca) in Beijing in 2007, the first in China. art gallery with programming by renowned local artists. Over the years, the couple gained influence by positioning themselves on the new wave of digital art and opened two branches of their gallery in the country. But the art market does not occupy all the time of Miriam Ulens, who is engaged in parallel philanthropic activities.
After a trip to Nepal, she founded Happy House Kathmandu in 1993, a combination orphanage and care center. In 2006, she and her husband opened the Ullens School, which offers education to the country’s children. The early 2000s were also marked by the illness of the Baroness, who managed to overcome breast cancer in 2003. An experience that led him in 2006 to the creation of the Mimi Ullens Foundation, which supports patients in specialized cancer centers in Belgium. Actions he will continue to engage in as a new and definitive adventure with Maison Ullens in luxury ready-to-wear.
After his murder on March 29, his fashion brand, art and charity foundations expressed their feelings of loss and sadness. “Mimi constantly reminded us that the most important thing is to thank life every day,” we can read on Maison Ullens’ Instagram. Many voices were raised to applaud the career of Baroness Merriam Ullens; “entrepreneur, patron and collector, devoted to the arts” with an extraordinary life until his death.
Source: Le Figaro
