Ann Demeulemeester

Demeulemeester’s clothes were rock and roll slowed to poetry — long black coats, blouses slipping off one shoulder, trailing straps and feathers — and her lifelong muse was explicit: Patti Smith, whose words appeared in the work and who performed at her shows. For nearly three decades the founder held one register and perfected it, before stepping away from her own label in 2013.

The house passed through successor designers before Italian retailer Claudio Antonioli acquired it in 2020, recommitting it to the founder’s codes. Gallici — promoted young from within the design team — has been received as the most convincing custodian yet: the slouched tailoring, the candlelight palette, the romance intact, worn now by a generation discovering the Antwerp Six as history.