Ann Demeulemeester continues to explore its founder’s willowy, androgynous groove with an in-house team.
The spring collection was about light and dark, with textures and textile weights providing subtle contrats in the crisp shirting, waxed cotton tailoring, barely there knits and thin leather — in an aquamarine so light as to appear white. Cuts hewed even closer to the body, taking the brand’s long and lean aesthetic a step further. So far, so Demeulemeester.
The founder, later spotted in conversation with Cher, whose arrival for the show had been greeted with a round of applause, continues to remain close to the brand now owned by the Italian retailer Claudio Antonioli.
Variations around a theme were trotted in succession — the long T-shirt, dusters with or without sleeves, double-layer jackets and more — often differentiated only by whether the legs were clad in floor-length skirts or split into fluid wide-leg trousers. Who knew that a shirtdress and a boilersuit could end up feeling like two faces of the same stylistic coin?
These sinuous silhouettes still tapped into the season’s sensual sentiment, with the only thing being bared here “its poetic soul,” as the brand’s sibylline show notes stated. Paired with the omni-gender approach to the casting, this felt of the moment.
As an ensemble, this 40-odd lineup could have been monotonous but ended up feeling as soothing as ASMR (autonomous, sensory, meridian response also know as a “brain massage” brought on by repetitive sounds) to the ears. But in the furore of a revived Paris Fashion Week, its whispering could be overlooked.
