Backstage before the Ann Demeulemeester show, designer Sébastien Meunier said his inspiration was montres sacrés from a very specific place and time.
“In the 1970s, in Antwerp, there was a rebel youth movement, but I was looking at the art scene,” he said. Specifically: the Wide White Space Gallery, which became home to artists including Marcel Broodthaers, Joseph Beuys, James Lee Byars, and many others. Byars, in particular, staged his performances in Antwerp and became very linked to the city that also brought Ann Demeulemeester to the fore. Today, Byars’s works can be seen in front of the label’s stores.
Byars’s “Giant” installations—huge bands of fabric rolled out all over the city—and his favorite colors became the starting point for a Demeulemeester collection that looked lighter than usual, in white, red, pink, violet, and anise green. “It’s almost psychedelic, in a way,” Meunier allowed, as he reached for qualifiers. Finally, he settled on “mystico-Seventies.” In that vein, there were a number of loose maxi dresses designed with transformability in mind: Those can be hitched up, tightened, draped, or shortened as the wearer sees fit.
Elsewhere, the house’s weeping willow aesthetic came through in layers of spider-web knits, transparent overlayers, pooling hoodies, fluid brocades, and feathered and fringed harnesses. Demeulemeester fans will gravitate toward the fluffy feather jackets over liquid satins; a layered tuxedo jacket with a brocade lapel and a black coat with a moonlight lining also looked sharp.
Those tall hats, too, are a Byars signature. “Byars was always looking for perfection, beauty, and a certain truth,” said Meunier, adding that an obsession with perfection was something the artist and the house’s founding designer shared. Perfection does not belong to this world, of course, but meanwhile, Meunier offered his clients what they need for the thrill of the chase.