The Designer Departs

Belgium’s legendary Ann Demeulemeester (54) has just announced (via a handwritten note to staff) that she will be leaving the eponymous company after the A/W 14 collection is shown in Paris on January 27th. ” A new time is coming both for my personal life and the brand…it has its own identity and legacy that is able to continue growing without me.”

Our fashion editor, Sive O’Brien says, “The doyenne of dark, almost Gothic-looking clothes, Demeulemeester has always done things in her own specific way, and as one of the original members of the ‘Antwerp Six’ – (the avant-garde groups of designers famous in 1980s for their deconstructed clothes) she has just followed her own direction and seems to just go with it. The type of woman who wears her designs is just like her – strong and individual and not so interested in mainstream trend dictations – maybe the celebrity and media circus that surrounds fashion all-too-much has become too much for her!”