Stefano Gallici Makes Debut at Ann Demeulemeester for Spring 2024

In a season of buzzy designer debuts, Ann Demeulemeester’s was a bit unusual: Its last creative director, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, left the brand after a single collection (which was generally well-received by critics and had a major red-carpet moment on Hunter Schafer at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscars after party), six months into the job. The details of the split weren’t made public, only gossiped about — but shortly after it was announced, the company named a replacement: Stefano Gallici, a Haider Ackermann alum who had already been working on the menswear team.

This sudden switch-up came after a few years of change at Ann Demeulemeester, first with designer Sébastien Meunier’s exit in the summer of 2020, then with Italian retailer Antonioli Group’s acquisition of the brand, its archives, its headquarters, Antwerp flagship and Paris showroom. (Ann Demeulemeester, the person, left fashion in 2013.) There have been shifts in production, in ways of working and, obviously, in leadership, the latest example of which was on display Saturday night in Paris, at Gallici’s fashion week debut.

The brand staged its Spring 2024 runway in the northern edge of the city, right next to the train tracks that spew out of Gare du Nord, inside a long, dark, cavernous building made to feel longer, darker and more cavernous with black curtains lining the walls and dim lighting over the catwalk itself, setting the scene for a collection that reflected and honored the moody, subversive feel of the Belgian brand.

Unsurprisingly, the palette sticks to its core trio of black, white and grey, only to be interrupted on occasion with a splash of blueish purple that sends a shock to the system. The interest comes in the form of texture and translucency, with the brand mixing knits with leathers with meshes with cotton to create clothes with depth, without the color.

Many looks appear almost in media res, intentionally unfinished to seem as if there was an interruption to the process and it remains incomplete, particularly in a suite of sheer mesh dresses with shading throughout or in the various distressed and fringed pieces sprinkled throughout the collection. Gallici also plays with layering in a meaningful way, where there will be a lot of material on a specific garment, but, because of the transparency or because of the length of the hemline or because of the styling, they’re still showing lots of skin. This creates a sense of uneasiness: Even when you’re technically covered up, you’re still exposed.

If de Saint Sernin had the feather as his key identifier at Ann Demeulemeester, Galliti’s chosen the belt, handing a branded black one to guests with details commemorating the show and incorporating it into various Spring 2024 looks in pretty much every way but a way to tighten the fit of your bottoms. Let’s see if it sticks.

See every look from Ann Demeulemeester Spring 2024 below.