Gothy guys (and girls, but w’ere talking about menswear here) adore Ann Demeulemeester. Which you get – Demeulemeester did it better than anyone else, and Sébastien Meunier, the inheritor of her dark mantle, follows in her bovver-booted footsteps. This autumn/winter 2017 season, Demeulemeester’s dudes wore duds that had a Victorian-meets-Seditionaries vibe. Think holey-moley mohair jumpers that looked like they’d been knitted on a witches’ broomstick combined with tiny puffed sleeve jackets and enormous shaggy fur throws, all in various shades of monochrome,. Henry Ford once said you could have it in any colour as long as it’s black – I wonder why Demeulemeester has never printed that on a t-shirt. This time, instead, Meaner printed his Demeulemeester clothes with the word “l’avenir,” meaning future. He is the future for the Demeulemeester label, but his future has plenty of echoes of the past, and respect for it. Obviously the Victorian stuff, but also Demeulemeester’s own. The future bright. Well, black, but bright.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
