| Ann Demeulemeester’s Spring 2027 collection, designed by Stefano Gallici, reduces the house’s palette to black, white and denim blue. Gallici developed it during a solo stay in a California desert cabin. Ethel Cain closed the show in an Edwardian dress and designed a capsule for the brand’s new Paris store. |
Stefano Gallici likes to leave town before designing a collection. For the Ann Demeulemeester Spring 2027 collection, he flew to Los Angeles alone and rented a cabin in the desert. He came home with three colors: Black, white, and denim blue.
“I got the idea for the black-and-white palette from the desert,” he said before the show. “When you’re in the middle of nowhere, you understand how life is reduced to the essentials.” For a house long associated with black and dark, poetic romanticism, adding white and denim blue represents a significant change in direction and shapes everything that follows.
The first half of the show featured white, cream, and ecru. A lace vest and cream cotton trousers opened the show, followed by a torn tutu made of shaggy wool tulle and silk crepon that added volume without weight. Next was a sleeveless Napoleon waistcoat over an asymmetric ruffled skirt on sheer organza. For men, cream cargo pants were paired with a Victorian blouse and a cropped tuxedo vest. Black took over later, repeating many of those shapes.
With so few colors to work with, texture had to carry the clothes. Mostly, it did. Not always. Fringed t-shirts knotted at the waist and tied with fine grosgrain ribbon looked better on their own. The styling felt hurried and heavy-handed.
Forget the sunlit postcard. During his stay, Gallici watched Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” and began to see the city differently. “L.A. is the ghost of a city that once was so vibrant,” he said. “It’s almost a city worn to death.”
You could see that idea in the tailoring. Silk suits, waistcoats, and cummerbunds showed patches of white cotton lining as if the fabric had thinned with age. Achieving that effect by fusing the layers was challenging, he admitted. A cream, tiered gown and loose, cropped trousers were stained brown and were worn with grubby, white ballet flats. Gallici said he found inspiration in older pieces from his own archive and wanted to recreate their look and feel.
After visiting Howard Hughes’s hangar in Playa Vista, Gallici designed aviation jackets in patinated leather to be layered over formal waistcoats. Edwardian necklines and 17th-century jabots spilled from cropped black Napoleon jackets.
Gallici himself called it “kind of strange” for Ann Demeulemeester to look to L.A. for inspiration. The brand’s codes surfaced anyway, albeit unevenly. Fringed jersey separates, fluid dresses, and low-crotch pants were the pieces that felt closest to the label’s roots. The black and blue feathers on skirts and epaulets looked out of place beside the breezier layers.
The boots, however, were another matter. The combat boot has become popular among celebrities and the brand’s young fans. This time, a heavier biker version arrived with several buckles and zippers. Gladiator sandals with thick buckles – a few on wedges – went with most looks. For the average person, the boots are the most immediately wearable part of the collection. They bridge the gap between a high-fashion label and an everyday wardrobe long before jabots or Napoleon jackets do.
Ethel Cain closed the show in an Edwardian dress with a cinched waist and a black Chantilly lace overlay. She designed it with Gallici via Zoom in the spring and also created a capsule collection for the brand’s new Paris store. Chelsea Wolfe performed live. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age walked the runway in a pinstripe suit and light denim shirt. Jamie Campbell Bower, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg sat in the front row.
It’s a specific crowd, and they were clearly invited by someone who knows them. The musicians, who share the house’s dark-romantic sensibility rather than the usual mix of fashion insiders in the front row, say more about who Ann Demeulemeester now wants to speak to than any look on the runway. The Ethel Cain capsule, available in the brand’s new Paris store, offers that audience a tangible, local entryway into the collection.
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Gallici sounds ready to push further. “I always try to approach this brand with reverence and respect,” he said. “But I also like to take a less orthodox approach.” Then, more plainly: “Season by season, I like to have a little more freedom.”
The uneven moments are the price of that freedom. His best looks were the quietest ones: the stained cream gown and the worn silk tailoring where a single idea was allowed to shine. For those wanting to borrow from this collection, the lesson lies in the palette. Black, white, and denim blue are colors that can be mixed and matched with what is already in a wardrobe. Desert minimalism promises subtraction, but this collection did not fully commit to it. Next season, I would like to see him cut more. He has the time.
