Ludovic de Saint Sernin is new Ann Demeulemeester Creative Director

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 1, 2022

Ann Demeulemeester has named Ludovic de Saint Sernin as its new Creative Director with his first collection for the label to be unveiled in March 2023 during Paris Fashion Week. 

The news follows the sale of the company two years ago to Italian fashion entrepreneur and New Guards Group co-founder Claudio Antonioli.

As might be expected from both Antonioli and from the Antwerp-based label, the new pick for creative chief is someone who clearly wants to make an impact.

Brussels-born and Paris-raised, Ludovic de Saint Sernin has accompanied the announcement of his appointment with a set of images shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo, in which he himself “embodies pieces from the Ann Demeulemeester archive, interpreting them anew”. 

The company said it’s “a prelude and an act of continuity”.

When Antonioli took over the label (that Ann Demeulemeester herself had exited seven years previously), he said he wanted to bring a new energy to the firm. And the new designer looks set to do that. 

He graduated from l’ESAA Duperré and worked for prominent French houses (including Balmain) before launching his eponymous label in 2017, gaining attention “for his sensual and individuality-driven take on fashion”. 

The company said that now, under him, “authorship and autobiography gain centrality, as [he] shapes the Ann Demeulemeester traits around his vision, proclivities and individuality, offering a first-person reading and the connection with today’s audience that comes from that”. 

So what can we actually expect from the new creative vision. We’ll have to wait until next March to find out. For now, we’re told that “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”.