Ann Demeulemeester

Ann Demeulemeester graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and emerged in the early 1980s as one of the Antwerp Six, the group of Belgian graduates who arrived in London together and permanently altered what a designer’s clothing was allowed to look like. She launched her own label in 1985. What she built over the following decades was a language rather than a look: black, white, and ivory, long lean lines, asymmetric closures, raw edges treated as finishes rather than as accidents, and a romanticism that never once softened into prettiness. She stepped away from the house in 2013. Stefano Gallici, who had worked in the studio as menswear designer, was named creative director in 2023 and has been extending the grammar rather than rewriting it.

You can see the continuity in the FW25 collection, which is what we carry. Nothing is decorative for its own sake. The ruffles on the Bregje dress and the Stee drawstring tops are structural, gathered rather than applied, and the Fora robe‘s macramé embroidery is worked into the silk rather than laid on top of it.

Ann Demeulemeester at W Department

W Department stocks 21 pieces across menswear and womenswear, from $315 to $2,766, nearly all made in Italy. Black dominates and the exceptions are ivory and white. The Berly dress in viscose, the Agnes jacket, the Treze bootcut trousers, the Zinaida sweater in mohair and silk. Danny, Heimo, and Hilla ankle boots in calf and cow leather. Silver jewelry: the Alke bracelet, the Foka key earrings, the Paulu perfume pendant necklace, which is a small vessel meant to be filled. And the house perfume itself, simply called A.

This is a house we carry for the same reason we carry Rick Owens and Comme des Garçons. The work assumes the wearer already has a point of view and has no intention of explaining it.

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Continue Exploring

• All Ann Demeulemeester. The FW25 buy in full, clothing, boots, jewelry, and perfume.
• Rick Owens. The American designer working between Paris and Venice, carried at W Department.
• Shoes and boots. Every pair on the floor.
• Jewelry. Silver and stone across the roster.
• The Library. Our writing on the houses we buy, plus the monthly playlist.
• Visit W Department. 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza, open daily, 11 to 5.

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