Defining one’s singular vision in fashion’s chaotic landscape is no easy feat. Yet in 1987, a group of young Belgium designers managed to do just that. As a member of the Antwerp Six, who will all be honored with a 40-year retrospective at MoMu-Fashion Museum Antwerp starting March 28, Ann Demeulemeester once told WWD that she never planned her brand more than six months ahead, choosing instead to focus on the present. That philosophy shaped the unmistakable singularity that defined her work for more than three decades, until she departed in 2013, via a handwritten letter.
This March 1997 cover perfectly illustrates her idiosyncratic take on tailoring, blending her signature slouched silhouette in a half-straight, half-cinched construction that blurred the lines between masculine and feminine aesthetics.