Invitations and T-shirts. Ann Demeulemeester’s printed art in book form

Ann Demeulemeester has done what many fashion commentators – journalists in particular – have dreamt of doing for years: publishing a book bringing together the most interesting, bizarre, elegant and curious gadgets, invitations and graphics she has collected, managed or curated over decades in the profession.

The list would obviously include Moschino (the original one, of course, that is, Franco, although his successor Rossella Jardini has also produced some memorable invitations over the years), then Karl Lagerfeld (oh, those designs), Alessandro Michele during his time at Gucci (we still have the mask from the 2019–2020 show, when he rather futilely attempted to instil in the American audience – the Asians understood it perfectly well – the Latin concept of equating the mask with the person), and also Antonio Marras with his painted cut-out dioramas, Prada with its surprise boxes, Valentino during the Piccioli era with its origami and little chests brimming with books you simply must read, Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli with his sculptural jewellery tied to little notes – and, in short, all those expressions of creativity that now fill entire cellars and which we all struggle to part with, beautiful as they are and who knows what the future may hold.

Amongst these eclectic collections awaiting a fitting archive, the designer from the famous Antwerp group – the ‘Antwerp Six’, who graduated in 1981 and include Dries van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee – has always been a part of this movement with her statement T-shirts and slogans.

Before her, no one had expressed such interesting thoughts about that small piece of cotton jersey.

With this book, “Print”, recently published by Hannibal Editions – sumptuously bound in fabric and featuring a design based on contrasting shades of black and white, her favourite colours – the designer, who sold her brand six years ago to fashion entrepreneur Claudio Antonioli, celebrates the somewhat lost art of the physical invitation, now largely replaced by QR codes and WhatsApp, with a selection of stark and powerful images (we decline to label them ‘iconic’ – which would be the perfect adjective, but as we have been writing for years, the term has been overused) chosen by her son, Victor Robyn, who, as a very young child, was the subject of one of these marvellous objects, alongside a quotation from the famous ‘lettre du voyant’ sent by Arthur Rimbaud to Paul Demeny in 1871: “Je est un autre”. There is also a tank top printed with “holy”, a reference to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Footnote to Howl”, which we would later rediscover, reinterpreted, at a fashion show featuring emerging talents in Tel Aviv.

And there she is too, so young, so intense, amongst the photos and the many fragments of a life lived with artistic intelligence.

A new space bearing his name has recently opened at the Palais Royal. The concept was developed by the brand’s creative director, Stefano Gallici.