Born: Kortrijk, Belgium, 1959
Ann Demeulemeester is a member of a group of experimental designers who emerged from Belgium in the mid-1980s. Termed deconstructivists, they achieved recognition by creating raw, elemental, non-traditional clothes. Demeulemeester designs with a close attention to detail and prefers to concentrate on pairing unusual fabrics, rather than focusing on colour and ornament. Although she is a meticulous planner, her clothes always look uncontrived. Her style is a melting pot of punk, gothic and Japanese; long coats and dresses in draped fabrics have become her signature, together with halter-neck vests and trousers and skirts which expose the hip bone. Often contradictory, Demeulemeester combines unconventional cutting and tailoring with distressed fabrics and crucifixes, and always mixes the austere with the avant-garde.
Demeulemeester studied fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and worked freelance before launching her own line in 1985. She showed her first collection in a Parisian art gallery and opened her Paris showroom in 1992. In 1996 she produced her first menswear line. Her celebrity clients include Madonna and Courtney Love.
