Set in a dark industrial space on a former railway, Stefano Gallici’s first show as creative director of Ann Demeulemeester opened on a soundtrack of trains’ clanking noises that reminded one of the comings and goings the brand has witnessed in less than a year.
As Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s journey at the label abruptly stopped after roughly six months, Gallici proved he is starting his own with a different attitude, veering the brand toward a darker, grittier sensuality from the more glam seductiveness his predecessor offered a glimpse of.
Bare skin was traded for soft layering and transparencies, while the teeny-tiny feather tops that made the most impact last season gave way to heavy leather belting and plenty of long ribbons kissing the ground and dragged around, amplifying models’ decisive strut on the long catwalk.
Overall, Gallici stayed true to the brand, anchoring the collection on its core elements, like elongated silhouettes, androgynous tailoring and the signature white shirts with cuffs extending past the wrist, in addition to nods to archival Ann Demeulemeester shows in the pops of colors that punctuated the lineup.
As this progressed, Gallici also stepped into more utilitarian-inflected territory with a series of pocketed jackets and his take on cargo pants, before eventually offering his version of an evening proposition via satin long dresses and short frocks with the leather belt detailing looped at the back or around the waist, respectively.
Although making for a compelling effort, the collection still lacked the spark that a poetic touch could have instilled in clothes. There’s little we know about Gallici himself, who joined the brand in 2020 and was previously menswear designer at the label, and the show didn’t offer much insight.
For his debut, Gallici stayed mum about both the collection and the direction he would like the brand to take, only sharing a note on Instagram to act like a manifesto of his tenure.
“The freedom to be as one wants, boundlessly. This is what Ann Demeulemeester stands for today,” reads a passage. Need more intel? “Definitions are a killer,” reads the following sentence. So only time will tell.
