Promises of a new era; Ludovic de Saint Sernin has been named the Creative Director of Ann Demeulemeester signalling a creative change for the company. Ludovic de Saint Sernin will debut his first collection as Creative Director of the Belgian brand in a show scheduled to take place this March 2023 at Paris Fashion Week. “Sensuality, tension, silhouette, fluidity, wildness, and a graphic feel are defining pillars of the language Ludovic de Saint Sernin is about to build as he traces the new course of Ann Demeulemeester, injecting his approach to fashion as a tool to shape and free one’s presence and appearance,” the brand wrote on their official statement.
Accompanying the official press release are a series of pictures where we see de Saint Sernin dressed in items from the Ann Demeulemeester's archive, dating all the way back to the 1990s. Photographed by Will Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo. Although the founding designer and member of the famous ‘Antwerp six’ left the creative direction of her namesake brand nearly 10 years ago, Demeulemeester still likes to be tangentially involved. The eponymous Belgian label saw the departure of their last official creative director back in 2020 when Sébastien Meunier stepped down from his role and exited the company after it was acquired by Italian entrepreneur Claudio Antonioli. Ever since his departure, the brand has opted to create their collections through an unnamed in-house design team.
Both Ann Demeulemeester and Ludovic de Saint Sernin were born in Belgium and share a similar taste for monochrome, romantic and deconstructed looks. Ludovic de Saint Sernin moved to Paris at the age of 7, where he studied womenswear at the prestigious École Duperré. He initially worked for Balmain before going solo and starting his acclaimed label in 2017. Known for his minimalist and gender fluid approach to fashion, he uses his personal life as inspiration for his collections. Balancing elegance and sexuality, he started a new wave of hedonism which undermines gender norms in an unashamedly seductive and erotic way. Known for his sleek undergraments, ‘dick print’ pants, and mesh tanks, he has been praised by some of the industry’s most revered critiques who sit alongside Rick Owens and Oliver Rousting in the front row of his shows.
Ludovic de Saint Sernin is more than ready for this next chapter in his journey, he has accumulated a vast amount of knowledge throughout his career interning at a number of highly acclaimed and respected houses. He learned about jewellery and embellishments interning at Dior and Balmain, he then moved on to explore footwear at Saint Laurent’s shoe department where he had the chance to work alongside Stefano Pilati, and then moved on to understand the importance of casting the right models when interning for a casting director under Maison Margiela and Yohji Yamamoto.
