Ann Demeulemeester Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Runway Review

Ann Demeulemeester

PARIS, September 29, 2011

By Tim Blanks

Ann Demeulemeester has been dreaming about the kind of adventuress that Arthur Rimbaud, the nineteenth-century poet hero of her men's Spring collection, might have come across during his self-imposed exile in Africa. Demeulemeester even has a bio for her. Isabelle Eberhardt was a Swiss writer who traveled extensively in North Africa in the late nineteenth century. She usually wore men's clothing, because she had more freedom of movement that way. In one photograph from her brief life, Eberhardt is dressed as a sailor. "I had to invent her," Demeulemeester said, minus the Indiana Jones hats, one hopes. But, in Eberhardt's case, truth truly was stranger than fiction, and that made her a dream muse for the designer.

The creature Demeulemeester created was part androgyne, part decadent, a poetic hybrid of East and West. As she did with her men's collection in June, Demeulemeester imagined a European wardrobe "infected" by the tribal dress her explorer encountered. That might start with something subtle like a striped, tailored blazer with tassels dangling off its buttons, or a trenchcoat de-structured till it was a soft kimonolike wrap. In the middle somewhere, there were slouchy openwork knits and a jacket over-embroidered to look utterly exhausted. Then came the more exotic pieces: the black silk tulle caftan with a trim of beads, the embroidered waistcoat with a trail of fringes. A sheer asymmetrical top and skirt appeared in an ombré that evoked a dust storm. With the spectral pulse of Harold Budd on the soundtrack sounding like mournful desert winds blowing through abandoned casbahs, Demeulemeester delivered one of her most seductive dissertations on la femme perdue.

See all from Ann Demeulemeester › Timeline

A.F. Vandevorst	A.L.C.	Acne
ADAM	A Détacher	Akris
Alberta Ferretti	Albino	Alexander McQueen
Alexander Wang	Alexandre Herchcovitch	Alexandre Plokhov
Alexis Mabille	Alice + Olivia	Altuzarra
Andrew Gn	Anna Sui	Ann Demeulemeester
Anne Valérie Hash	Ann-Sofie Back Atelje	Anthony Vaccarello
Antonio Berardi	Antonio Marras	Aquascutum
Aquilano.Rimondi	Araks	Azzaro

Badgley Mischka	Balenciaga	Bally
Balmain	Banana Republic	Band of Outsiders
Barbara Bui	Barbara Tfank	Basso & Brooke
BCBG Max Azria	Bebe	Betsey Johnson
Bibhu Mohapatra	Bill Blass	Billy Reid
Blumarine	Bottega Veneta	Brood
Burberry Prorsum

Cacharel	Calla	Calvin Klein Collection
Camilla and Marc	Carlos Miele	Carolina Herrera
Carven	Celine	Chado Ralph Rucci
Chadwick Bell	Chalayan	Chanel
Charlotte Ronson	Chloé	Chris Benz
Christian Cota	Christian Dior	Christian Siriano
Christophe Lemaire	Christopher Kane	Christopher Raeburn
Clements Ribeiro	Collette Dinnigan	Comme des Garçons
Commuun	Costello Tagliapietra	Costume National
Creatures of the Wind	Cushnie et Ochs	Custo Barcelona
Cynthia Rowley	Cynthia Steffe

D&G	Damir Doma	Danielle Scutt
Daryl K	David Koma	Dennis Basso
Derek Lam	Diane von Furstenberg	Diesel Black Gold
DKNY	Dolce & Gabbana	Donna Karan
Doo.Ri	Douglas Hannant	Dries Van Noten
Dsquared²	Duro Olowu

Edun	Elie Saab	Elie Tahari
Emanuel Ungaro	Emilio de la Morena	Emilio Pucci
Emporio Armani	Erdem	Erin Fetherston
Etro