Ann Demeulemeester

PARIS, February 26, 2008
By Sarah Mower
The girls and boys in the Ann gang are slouching into a purplish patch for Fall. It's not far off their beaten path—you'd never expect that—but somewhere along the line, they've picked up an extra layer of mauve ombré-dyed Mongolian lamb, purple-painted shearlings, and maroon-fringed goat hair for winter. Demeulemeester deserves kudos, however, as her crowd never looks as if it's trailing off into Woodstock-slash-boho-rock-'n'-roll-retro costume. She's one of those people whose personal sense of indie cool goes to the bone, and never involves looking back or trying too hard.

Things do change by calibrations, though, and this season it was in the proportions created by a wraparound tunic-length top or jacket, and pants tucked into high-laced knee boots. There was still plenty of black and examples of the Demeulemeester cutaway redingote, but they were leavened by a smattering of flower-print and fringed silk jackets. Best, though, was the modernization of this season's by now clichéd seventies chubby—in Demeulemeester's hands it became an asymmetric, high-wrapped cream Mongolian lamb stole with the tips dyed a cool shade of urban grime.