This season, Paris is living up to its name of the City of Love. Just a day after designer Stéphane Ashpool staged a faux wedding ceremony at his label Pigalle’s SS17 show, Cupid shot his arrow at Paris Fashion Week again. This time, it hit Ann Demeulemeester’s show where designer Sébastien Meunier debuted a collection – styled by Dazed creative director Robbie Spencer – which was centred around the notion of punk romance.
This transpired quite literally – the words “I am red with love” were spelled out on several garments; on sheer tops and on the back of long cardigans. “It’s a sentence about love, you know you become red when you are in love,” the designer said backstage. “Also, you can’t be black with love, and we love black at Ann Demeulemeester. It’s a colourful emotion.”
There was romance elsewhere in the collection; in the silk shirts and military jackets – both of which felt reminiscent of Wuthering Heights’ tortured romantic hero, Heathcliff. Models wore necklaces decorated with feathers (an Ann Demeulemeester signature), chainlets made from black beads and chokers made from black ribbon, Obi-like belts around their waist and bondage-style straps around their legs, and trailing parachutes that billowed out behind them.
The show’s soundtrack similarly reflected this idea of punk romance – “We started with Patti Smith and we finished with Brian Eno and, it’s about the romance so, there are different emotions when you’re in love.”
