ANN DEMEULEMEESTER TO MARK 40 YEARS AT NEXT PITTI UOMO
Ann Demeulemeester will celebrate 40 years of style as the Special Guest designer at Pitti Immagine Uomo 101 taking place in Florence from January 11-13, 2022. The iconic brand founded in Antwerp in the ‘80s will hold a special event on Wednesday, January 12th at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence.
“We have always loved the style of Ann Demeulemeester,” said Lapo Cianchi, director of communication and events at Pitti Immagine. “Both for her nonconformist approach and ability to calmly, yet resolutely, occupy a precise space on the international scene, as well as for her aptitude for renewal, while remaining faithful to an original intuition: the new pathway, set into motion by a visionary entrepreneur like Claudio Antonioli, builds upon these tendencies by undertaking an ideal dialogue with the founder and her standards. We are honored to recall here in Florence a story that began forty years ago, in 1982. The event created for Pitti Uomo 101 will have a special energy, thanks to the exchange between different forms of creative expression, a special attention for the younger generations, and a synchronized tale, between future, present, and past, that recounts the fashion of Ann Demeulemeester.”
For Demeulemeester, fashion is a form of communication. Her complex language of contrasts covers a whole gamut of emotions. The tension is highly poetic – her clothes reveal many layers of “soul.” Known for her elegant tailoring and dark yet glamorous aesthetic, she created a serene and darkly romantic world with an intriguing mix of edgy rebellion and sophistication.
Demeulemeester graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1981 and from 1982 onwards she participated in a series of contests and fashion events with her first collections.
She launched her eponymous label and her first commercial collection in 1987 with her longstanding creative partner Patrick Robyn. Her first fashion show in Paris in 1992 has put her immediately on the international fashion map.
Her intelligent approach to fashion rises above trends and offers a continually evolving system of dressing with integrity and fierce independence.
Demeulemeester left her label in 2013 and ever since has experimented with a variety of new expressive formats.
In 2020, the Ann Demeulemeester label was purchased by Claudio Antonioli, Milan entrepreneur and talent scouter, who took the reins of the brand in hand with great respect for its past and a clear vision of the future. His mission is to reposition Ann Demeulemeester as a luxury fashion brand, while remaining faithful to its image.