The news item shakes the flat country.
On March 29 in Lasne, a peaceful rural town south of Brussels, the founder of the luxury brand Maison Ullens, Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten Whettnall, 70, was murdered outside her home by her stepson Nicolas Ullens. of Schooten Whettnall, 57.
While she was driving her car, alongside her husband, Guy Ullens of Schooten Whettnall, the latter opened fire on the vehicle six times, fatally hitting her and injuring her husband.
A crime perpetrated “in the context of a family conflict, in particular of a financial nature”, specified by press release the parquet floor of Walloon Brabant, reported by AFP.
And who does not fail to make the headlines in Belgium, where the rich baroness had acquired a reputation as a socialite who touches everything.
Read alsoBelgium: murder in a family of the Belgian aristocracy, the advanced financial motive
And for good reason, her eclectic trajectory has combined pastry, contemporary art and philanthropy, before finally leading her to fashion.
In 2009, Myriam Ullens launched a wardrobe tailored to the demands of her life between the five continents: luxurious pieces with a subtle chic, as easy to wear at a vernissage as to take on board a sailboat.
She made a name for herself with a reversible “traveler's kit” in cashmere or silk knit and settled in cities synonymous with luxury, Paris, New York and Aspen.
These are the beginnings of what some call across the Atlantic “
quiet luxury
”.
To bring her vision to life in the Maison Ullens collections, the Baroness surrounds herself with big names: Véronique Leroy when she started out, then Haider Ackermann as a creative consultant.
Finally, very recently, Maison Ullens appointed an artistic director: the Antwerp designer Christian Wijnants.
Naturally, the pointed proposal appeals to personalities from all walks of life such as Queen Mathilde, to whom she is close, or Melania Trump.
A neophyte of fashion, the baroness had forged a clientele in her image, that of a woman of the world with an extraordinary destiny.
business woman and man
Born Lechien in Cologne on September 23, 1952, Myriam moved to Belgium at the age of 15.
His father is a career soldier and sends him there to boarding school.
Turned towards entrepreneurship, after her studies, she launched
La Petite Salade
, a ready meal delivery company, before opening
Sweetly,
a high-end pastry shop in the Belgian capital.
In 1999, eight years after their meeting, of which few details are known, she became the second wife of Baron Guy Ullens of Schooten Whettnall.
The latter, who had four children from a first marriage, including Nicolas Ullens de Schooten, is a wealthy businessman from a powerful lineage that is both aristocratic and industrial.
Coming from one of the noble and wealthy families of the Lineages of Brussels, the baron took the helm in 1973 of the family business: the Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, flagship of Belgian sugar.
When it was sold in 1989, he invested in the holding company Artal Luxembourg and became its president.
The year of its union with Myriam Lechien, the group acquired Weight Watchers and the Albert children's clothing brand.
An acquisition which however does not prefigure the fashion shift of the latter, because, after their marriage, the spouses decide to devote themselves fully to their common passion: contemporary art.
Works of art and good works
The rest of the story is written in Asia for Myriam Ullens.
First in China, where the activities of her husband, an art collector and fine connoisseur of the emerging scene in the region from the 1990s, regularly lead her. Both founded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts (Ucca) in Beijing in 2007, China's first art gallery with authoritative local artist programming.
Over the years, the couple gained influence by positioning themselves on the new current of digital art, and opened two branches of their gallery in the country.
But the art market does not occupy all the time of Myriam Ullens who pursues parallel philanthropic activities.
Following a trip to Nepal, she founded Happy House Kathmandu in 1993, which combines an orphanage and a care center.
In 2006, still with her husband, she opened the Ullens School, which offers education to children in the country.
The early 2000s were also marked by illness for the Baroness, who managed to overcome breast cancer in 2003. An ordeal that led her, in 2006, to the creation of the Mimi Ullens Foundation, which supports patients in centers specialized in cancer in Belgium.
Activities in which she will continue to be involved as a new - and final - adventure in luxury ready-to-wear with Maison Ullens looms.
After his murder on March 29, his fashion brand and arts and charitable foundations expressed their sense of loss and sadness.
"Mimi constantly reminded us that the most important thing is to give thanks to life every day", can we read on the Instagram account of Maison Ullens.
Many voices were raised to salute the career of Baroness Myriam Ullens: an "entrepreneur, patron, and collector, committed to art" with an extraordinary life, until her death.
