Fashion Designer Ann Demeulemeester-Indelibles.com

Ann Demeulemeester was born in 1959, in Kortrijk, Belgium. After graduating from the art school in Brugge, she decided to study fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in Antwerp from 1978 to 1981.

From 1981 onwards, Ann Demeulemeester did some freelance designing for the international ready-to-wear collections. She launched her own label in 1985. She is also one of the group of experimentally minded designers which emerged from Belgium in the middle of the 1980's.

Ann Demeulemeester today lives with her husband, photographer Patrick Robyn and her son Victor in a house designed by the architect Le Corbusier, in Antwerp.

Demeulemeester is a deconstructionist, who avoids ornament and colour in favour of close attention to detail and unusual mixing of fabrics. Her styles often incorporate contradictions: an austerity of outline might be marked with gently draped fabrics or antique-like fabrics. Nostalgic hippie style materials along with frayed edges are often mixed with some very stark coats.

Her long coats and dresses have become her signature classic style, along with halter waistcoats, blouses disguised as neckties and trousers and skirts which tend to expose the hip bone.

Her 1970's rock style tailoring and leather wear draw inspiration from strong female icons of music such as Patti Smith or Janis Joplin. She is also a master of cobweb knitwear or oversize masculine slouch suits. Ann Demeulemeester is mostly known to design clothes with lots of "character".