The Ann Demeulemeester muse this season was a wannabe bride, with a rigid veil strapped to her head, offsetting her pale mien and ruby-stained lips. Her models walked to the beat of a hauntingly beautiful remix of “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” like characters out of a Jane Austen novel with a hidden dark side.
Feminism, schme-minism. Die-hard romantic Sébastien Meunier had in mind a girl “who dreams of future love, of being taken but also of remaining free…and who dreams of partying.” The designer gathered a crew of house favorites, including Erin O’Connor, Kirsten Owen and Alek Wek, to pull off the story line, in addition to some new recruits.
There was a sense of freedom to the collection’s flowing silhouettes with their trailing straps; a new sportswear direction and some nice volume plays added a fresh edge. The designer layered a cropped black sweatshirt over a billowing, prairie-girl white cotton dress, and revisited baggies in gauzy lace or deep-purple crushed velvet.
The unexpected mix of lace and black leather — with a supersoft, aged look — worked well, especially on the looks edged with the line’s signature fur and feather trims, which lent a note of poetry and fragility.
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