Ann Demeulemeester
Ann Demeulemeester ( born December 29, 1959 in Waregem ) is a Belgian fashion designer. It belongs to the group of designers Antwerp Six and is next to Martin Margiela as the main representative of the dekonstruvistischen fashion of the late eighties and early nineties.
Life
Ann Demeulemeester studied fashion design at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After her graduation in 1981 she worked for several years for a Belgian fashion company. Together with her husband and childhood friend, the photographer Patrick Robyn ( b. 1957 ), she founded in 1985, the year of her wedding, her own production company. In the same year she earned him a Le Corbusier -designed, 1926 built house called Maison Guiette (named after the Belgian painter René Guiette and clients ) in Antwerp, where she also einrichtete her studio. Late 2000s Demeulemeester moved with her family to the countryside in Belgium. The couple has a son.
Style
Ann Demeulemeester is one with Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck and others with whom they studied together, to the circle of the Antwerp Six, a generation of fashion designers who, with their work, in which she issues such metamorphoses Identity Control, androgyny explored the foundations of European fashion and shaken the reputation of the Belgians founded as a conceptualist. The style of the Antwerp Six was influenced by Japanese designers such as Yohji Yamamoto. Barbara Vinken described him as " fashion after the fashion ", beyond the demand for eternal youth and beauty. Their first fashion show, the group had in London in 1986.
Since Ann Demeulemeester at the age of 16 years, the black-and- white photography on Patti Smith's Horses album cover saw on the Smith wore a white shirt with black suspenders and a black jacket thrown over his shoulder, black is her favorite color. Black dominated their collections, although were added also colored accents since the early 2000s, and she quoted the white shirt in various combinations and styles over and over again. A white shirt, a waistcoat, black trousers or long skirt, lace-up boots to flat rough - this is the Demeulemeester uniform, the women will give the feeling of being at the same time daring and to feel protected. Patti Smith, carries the Demeulemeester's clothes at their performances, became her muse and her friend.
With their first women's collection Ann Demeulemeester debuted at Fashion Week in Paris in 1992. From 1996, she also designed menswear collections. Women are not Barbie dolls, Demeulemeester commented on her fashion in an interview, and they appreciate a hint of femininity in men. Demeulemeester is the preferred natural materials, such as leather, wool, felt, and hardly used synthetic materials. Her early works seem strict, with a deliberately unfinished appearance. Cuts that leave a lot skin free, asymmetries, movement and superimposed turned- fabric layers - Demeulemeester deconstructed fashion, what you also earned the label grunge look. Rock, Punk and Gothic are other attributes with which Demeuleesters style has been described. She worked alongside Smith with Jim Dine together, both artists labeled garments with their texts, and was inspired by the painter Jackson Pollock and the American photographer Steven Klein for men's collections. Her fashion is considered to be non-conformist, avant-garde, intellectual, as a " poetic mix of dedicated rebellion and sensuality ."
- Spring 2013 collection
2010 commented on the American fashion critic Suzy Menkes, Ann Demeulemeester could be the designer, who the " Lexicon has created the modern woman of the 21st century. "
Business
1994, involved the Belgian entrepreneur Anne Chapelle, which had Demeulemeester know as mother of a friend of her son, as an investor in the company financially by Demeulemeester, took over the management away from the creative and has since acted as CEO. At Chapelle's 32 BVBA company, founded as a holding company, was next to Ann Demeulemeester to 2013, the fashion company of the Belgian designer Haider Ackermann. The first own Demeulemeester boutique was opened in Antwerp in 1999. There are other stores in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul. Her fashion is sold in 30 countries worldwide.
In November 2013 Ann Demeulemeester announced that she is leaving her company. The Ann Demeulemeester brand with its own retail stores will continue to operate under the management of its business partner Anne Chapelle. On the fashion shows in February 2014, trained by Demeulemeester design team presented from Mirjam van den Akker, Sébastien Meurier and Patrick van Ommeslaghe his first collection for the label.
Quote
"Good fashion for me is like rock'n roll - there's always a little rebellion in it. "