The spell has been broken: Sweatpants are not forever. Love and Ann Demeulemeester have saved the day with soft, poetic tailoring.
Powering this resurgence is Claudio Antonioli, the Italian retailer, businessman, and cofounder of New Guards Group, the company behind Off-White, Palm Angels, and other high-profile streetwear brands. He acquired Ann Demeulemeester last year, primarily for reasons of the heart. “For me, it’s really love,” said Antonioli on a video call. “Ann is one of the most important designers in my life, and I think in the fashion system. It’s really authentic; I don’t want to change the brand.”
To that end, he’s in constant communication with the house founder and has hired her husband, Patrick Robyn, to work on the remodeling of the flagship in Antwerp, Belgium. Antonioli corralled photographer Willy Vanderperre and stylist Olivier Rizzo to produce the moody and romantic collection film; the collection was designed by a “ghost team.”
Some of the fall pieces are remakes of things Ann Demeulemeester created decades ago, and much of the collection iterates on her distinctive, androgynous, and, as Antonioli notes, logo-less work.
One of the Antwerp Six, Demeulemeester was a proponent of Belgian deconstructivism in the 1990s. Her take on the trend was extremely gentle and based on expert pattern making. Those ribbons that run diagonally and protectively across the body inside a jacket allow it to slouch off the shoulder. The Demeulemeester signature, as can be seen in this collection, is tailoring. Tailoring that is sophisticated and sensual, comfortable and comforting, and has a morning-after sexiness to it.
There’s an essentiality to the Demeulemeester vision, a wardrobe of several easy pieces: shirt, jacket, skirt, pants, tank, vest, and coat. These are all imbued with a gothic romance akin to that of the designer’s muse, Patti Smith, who is channeled in the film and look book for the new collection.
The buzz around this relaunch isn’t about ’90s nostalgia: It speaks to the endurance and integrity of good design, and the power of an unwavering, individual vision. A list of designers with identities as absolute as Demeulemeester’s would be short, suggests Antonioli. He finds modernity in the androgyny of the designer’s vision, and has concrete proof, as a retailer who has worked with the brand since the late 1980s, that good design is timeless design.
Going forward we can expect to see the Demeulemeester DNA closely followed. With a brand as singular as this, says Antonioli, “really, the only approach is that one. If I would like to make a commercial brand, I wouldn’t buy [an existing brand]; I would start with a new one.” The way he sees it: “I work for Ann Demeulemeester, not they work for me.” And that, folks, is amore.
