Ah, spring, and the first blush of young love. With the warmer months, Sebastien Meunier expressed this returning flush at Ann Demeulemeester. Titled “Two Suns,” this collection was centered around the duality of love: "the classic feeling, where elegance and sensitivity abound, and something more modern, more energetic. The search for otherness, someone who is not quite the same," explained the designer. "It echoes the duality of our brand, for men and women."
Long and lean, the silhouettes carried the melancholy elegance as part and parcel of the brand's DNA. But there was something playful in the sheerness. On trousers, it was interesting but as biker jackets, it made for crowd pleasing novelty. "We are looking for a contemporary rock energy," Meunier said. "Ann's rock energy is legendary but it can't stay unmoving." If the overall impression was pure Demeulemeester, the way these layers moved, how the vivid flashes of colors felt like a violent blush, those invoked a raw new passion. Perhaps that was the influence of e e cummings sultry "may I feel said he" poem, printed on the invitation. Where Ann's man had been a somewhat aloof dark romantic, Meunier's is a more carnal, sensual type.
Beyond its own identity, Ann Demeulemeester taps into the undercurrent of fluidity, not just of gender but more widely of identity that defines our moment in time. "What remains is future" is a saying that the founder used in the past. Indeed.