Given the kind of idolatry Ann Demeulemeester inspires, creative director Stefano Gallici said he felt, with this sophomore show, like he was once again embarking on a new beginning.
“Ann has been so many things. I wanted to approach the archives like a mind-scape,” he said during a preview, listing among his primary inspirations the founder’s constructivist period and an emphasis on shapes, volumes, and materials. “For me, there is this metaphoric way of interpreting my surroundings, like carving a path through the forest,” he mused. “There’s always a boundary to surpass.”
Though he takes his cues from house archetypes, the designer said he is gradually stepping back a bit from the archives (“but in a smooth way”) to incorporate some of his own signatures. While waistcoats, tailored trousers, a three-piece suit, and a certain slouchy ease remained central to the plot, there were new twists like a leather Perfecto, more structured outerwear, and a taste for leather and lace—in one instance embroidered with thorns—that skewed very Stevie Nicks.
On the runway, however, the emotion seemed amiss, as if the brand’s usual melancholic romance and a sense of yearning had been replaced by something palpably more angry, more angsty, less achy. That may have been a styling issue: Taken piece by piece, the designer ticked off many of the season’s trends—handsome burgundy leathers paired with blush silk and satin, a panel wrap trimmed in shearling, shaggy coats, DIY-inflected macramé tops, a leather apron dress, overcoats trimmed with fur, and a darkly romantic overcoat in crushed black velvet. Many pieces looked perfectly nice; none looked new.
Which brings us back to that forest metaphor. As Gallici himself noted, “Sometimes when you get lost, you have to find a new way.” It seems clear he’s still mid-process: Deciding to put himself out there is the next boundary he’ll have to surpass.
