Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s debut with Ann Demeulemeester last weekend in Paris was highly anticipated. It was a simple homage, perhaps a little too simple.
In the past few weeks and months there have been many name changes in the fashion organization charts. The contracts between the labels and the fashion designers are getting shorter and shorter, on average three years, while it used to be sometimes ten years. If the spark between the brand and the fashion designer doesn’t fly, it’ll soon be “Next!”. In London Daniel Lee has two weeks ago took over the direction at Burberryand in Paris last week Harris Reed and Ibrahim Kamara presented their first collections for Nina Ricci and Off-White.
And then there was Ann Demeulemeester, where new Artistic Director Ludovic de Saint Sernin made his catwalk debut on Saturday night.
The Belgian label has been around since 1985 and was founded by Demeulemeester and her husband and right-hand man Patrick Robyn. The couple has not held a stake in BVBA 32 since 2013. It was then sold to entrepreneur Anne Chapelle. The French designer Sébastien Meunier, who has been designing the men’s collections for several years, became artistic director.
The label changed hands again in 2021. It was made by Italian businessman Claudio Antonioli taken over, who owns boutiques in Milan (where he has been selling Ann Demeulemeester since 1987), Turin, Lugano and Ibiza, as well as Club Volt in Milan. Antonioli was also a co-founder of New Guards Group (NGG), the group behind trendy labels like Off/White, Palm Angels and Ambush. NGG was sold to e-commerce giant Farfetch a few years ago; however, he himself is no longer involved with the group.
“I don’t want the brand to change completely,” Antonioli said after relaunching Ann Demeulemeester last year. “There’s no rush. But I want to prepare for the future. Fashion isn’t for sixty-year-olds. Fashion speaks to people in their twenties and thirties and we want to reach them. With respect to the DNA of Ann Demeulemeester”.
By then, Sébastien Meunier had already said goodbye. The label, including the atelier, moves from Antwerp to Milan. Antonioli brought Demeulemeester and Robyn back on board. Demeulemeester advised behind the scenesAmong other things, Robyn was responsible for the redesign of the flagship store in Antwerp.
The two also sat front row at the brand’s first runway show under Antonioli’s direction. This show and the next, both during Paris Fashion Week, were designed by a dedicated team. The collections were consistent with the designer’s heritage and featured many reinterpretations of pieces from the archive. They were well received but had relatively little impact, despite Cher’s front-row appearance last season.
That wasn’t really surprising. During Paris Fashion Week, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for an independent fashion house to stand out from the mega shows of the luxury houses and younger, more social media savvy labels like Jacquemus or Coperni, who spray-painted the runway with a dress made of one last season Tube scored massively with Bella Hadid.
Ludovic de Saint Sernin makes his Ann Demeulemeester debut
Late last year, Ann Demeulemeester unexpectedly announced a new artistic designer: Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who was born in Brussels but grew up in France.
The designer, who founded his own label in 2017 and occasionally models at shows, specializes in glittery (literally) sneakers that are often gender fluid. At first glance, there’s nothing that connects De Saint Sernin and Demeulemeester, except maybe the Parisian’s Venetian-blonde locks.
But De Saint Sernin has a large following, mostly young fans, and a strong network. He is familiar with digital media. One of his first moves was to replace Michèle Montagne, the legendary Parisian press attaché who had accompanied Demeulemeester since the 1990s and also helped with the styling of the shows for years, with the agency of Lucien Pagès, who was responsible for Coperni’s stunts, among other things .
De Saint Sernin began his work at the brand with a series of six photos showing himself in Demeulemeester archive pieces. Then came Saturday night’s show at the Lycée Carnot, a high school that regularly hosts shows – earlier this week, Swedish brand Acne Studios also made a guest appearance there.
The debut, like these selfies, was remarkably committed to the archives: black leather suits and white shirts for the boys, long silk skirts for the girls; sturdy step boots; cords; Feathers – in the first and last looks, a leather feather served as a bandeau of sorts, and several models, notably all women, crossed their arms in front of their bare breasts in a dove-like fashion.
“It was my way of saying that after taking that first step, I’m going to spread my wings and be able to express myself,” the designer said backstage.
He called the collection a tribute to Demeulemeester, based on the 2014 book of photos of all of the designer’s looks from all of her shows, from her debut to her last collection of her own in 2013, printed on gossamer bible paper. In it he prefers the period between about 1997 and 2000, because that’s where he recognizes himself the most. He is also said to have met her and was advised to do his best and work hard.
Maybe he has to work even harder. All in all, this was a collection that was rather light in a figurative but also in a literal sense – apart from leather pieces, there were hardly any jackets or coats to be seen. Demeulemeester was known for her moody, poetic shows, but De Saint Sernin never managed to create, or even recreate, a similar atmosphere. The magic was missing.
In addition, the difference to the collections of his predecessor Sébastien Meunier was rather small. A simple tribute to Ann Demeulemeester might not be enough to get younger generations excited about the story. For the brand’s older fans, De Saint Sernin’s collection is a poor copy of the original, Demeulemeester “light”. And the younger target group is waiting impatiently for the French designer’s own vision.
What does Ann Demeulemeester mean now, in the twenty-first century? Perhaps next season the designer will find an answer to this question.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.