Ann Demeulemeester Spring 2027

An Ann Demeulemeester show has always felt slightly removed from the usual fashion-week circuit. There are familiar faces, certainly, but they tend to disappear into a more unusual crowd of musicians, artists and creative outsiders, with the occasional celebrity folded into the mix. Under creative director Stefano Gallici, that community has become part of the brand itself: niche, instinctive and deliberately unconcerned with fitting neatly into fashion's mainstream.

For Spring 2027, Gallici looked towards a solo journey through the Californian desert, taking the landscape's bleached colours and worn textures and filtering them through Ann Demeulemeester's darker romanticism. The palette was stripped back to black, white and blue, while layers did much of the visual work. The opening looks came in white, ivory, chalk and ecru, with minidresses, asymmetric aprons and skirts built from tulle, silk crepon, ruched jersey and knitted fringes. Cut-out tops left ribbons trailing behind the body, creating a sense of movement that felt both fragile and slightly undone. Rather than California's familiar language of sunshine and glamour, Gallici found something more interesting in its winter landscape: sun-bleached decay. Faded prints and cut-out T-shirts, distressed denim, bleached cargo trousers and workwear marked with rust stains gave the collection a sense of clothes that had already lived a life. Frilled dresses were paired with ballet flats, while destroyed tuxedos and tailored pieces were turned inside out, exposing their linings. Leather aviator jackets arrived with a beautifully worn patina, as though they had been pulled from the back of a wardrobe rather than manufactured to look new.

There was plenty here for those who have been following Gallici's development of the house. Lingerie continued to interrupt tailoring, while Victorian and Edwardian references appeared alongside military details, including the now recognisable Napoleon jacket. His recent interest in 1970s tailoring also remained present, giving the collection a more grounded counterpoint to its deliberately distressed elements. The soundtrack made the connection between Gallici's personal world and the collection even clearer. Ethel Cain's “Western Nights” and Chelsea Wolfe's “The Mother Road” had accompanied his desert trip, and both artists became part of the show itself, with Cain creating a capsule collection for the newly opened Paris store and Wolfe performing live on the catwalk. Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme also appeared on the runway, while Jamie Campbell Bower, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale sat front row. Gallici may have travelled through the desert alone, but Spring 2027 made it clear that he is building something much larger around Ann Demeulemeester: a fashion world where music, art, friendship and clothes are allowed to occupy the same space.