Ann Demeulemeester appoints Ludovic de Saint Sernin as creative director

Ann Demeulemeester has appointed Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin as the brand’s new creative director. Mr de Saint Sernin will be the first creative director since the Belgian label was bought by New Guards Group co-founder Antonioli, the luxury retailer based in Italy and Switzerland.

In July 2020 Ann Demeulemeester’s then creative director Sébastien Meunier stepped down after seven years, having succeeded Ms Demeulemeester who stepped back from her label in 2013 to pursue other projects. A few months later the acquisition by Antonioli was announced.

Ms Demeulemeester, who is a member of the pioneering Belgian fashion group Antwerp Six, has more recently focused on homeware, ceramics and lighting, launching a collection in partnership with Serax, the Belgian interior design label.

First collection to come March 2023

De Saint Sernin is a relative newcomer to Paris fashion week, having debuted his signature aesthetic of gender fluid pieces in 2017. An announcement on Ann Demeulemeester’s Instagram page said the first collection will be unveiled in March 2023 during Paris Fashion Week.

The brand said de Saint Sernin will “shape the Ann Demeulemeester traits around his vision, proclivities and individuality, offering a first-person reading and the connection with today’s audience that comes from that.”

“Sensuality, tension, silhouette, fluidity, wildness, and a graphic feel are defining pillars of the language Ludovic de Saint Sernin is about to build as he traces the new course of Ann Demeulemeester, injecting his approach to fashion as a tool to shape and free one’s presence and appearance.”

As a prelude and an act of continuity a set of 6 images shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo were released in which the designer himself embodies pieces from the Ann Demeulemeester archive, interpreting them anew.