Perhaps the best thing about rock and roll fashion is its sheer ambiguity. Except for its notable edge, mens’ and womens’ wear cannot be differentiated. A rocker T is a rocker T, and a black leather jacket with zippers is just as at home on John Lydon as it is on Debby Harry. The Fall 2014 Ready to Wear from the once eponymous Ann Demeulemeester collection uses that androgyny with aplomb. A cropped fur moto vest might have shown on a male model, but any woman worth her edgy salt would vie to wear it. A slim sheath over roomy monastic trousers might have hidden the model’s female curves, but one can just as easily see a smooth bassist riffing while wearing the ensemble on stage.
Much will be written about Demeulemeester’s eloquent, hand-penned departure from the house she founded. Her successors, though, a trio of a Frenchman and two Belgians with barely a word written about them to date, honor her line’s spirit in their debut collection. Multiple and inventive iterations of the goth staple trench coat nod to teenage angst and film noir. Touches of copper metallic and barely noticeable midnight shimmer are an oddly happy twist reminiscent of the glittery shell of an amusement park ride.
The show closes with stark contrast: out of the black come stark whites, draped and fluid. Trite as it may seem, perhaps Demeulemeester’s trio is releasing their founder into her new space.
by Alison Santighian
Images courtesy Style.com