How Claudio Antonioli Rebuilt Ann Demeulemeester’s Cult Following
If anyone needed proof that subcultures still exist, all they needed to do was walk into the Parisian friary that housed last season’s Ann Demeulemeester runway show on the Saturday evening of Paris Fashion Week.
A musical duo called Beguiling Junior played husky rock music as about 500 20-year-olds all decked in Ann Demeulemeester took their seats around the vaulted space. Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page sat across from me, while one row behind him and to the right, a couple was making out throughout the show, his messy hair buried in her neck, her pale pink chiffon dress draped across his leather jacket. If that couple looked up, they’d have seen Billy Idol walk.
“This is such a scene,” breathed British Vogue’s Julia Hobbs, sitting next to me.
“It’s one of the most important aspects of the work [creative director] Stefano Gallici is doing,” says Ann Demeulemeester CEO and owner Claudio Antonioli six months later while showing me around the VIC room of the flagship store in Milan’s Via Monte Napoleone.
“Stefano’s ability is not only to create collections with a strong personality but also to build a community around the brand. Today, there is a very young group of people following Ann Demeulemeester, people who identify with its world and its collections. At the same time, we have managed to maintain the brand’s original community, which was very important to me. What you saw at the show was very intentional; when the music, the people and the atmosphere come together, a fashion show becomes a moment of connection and belonging.”
One of the Antwerp Six, Ann Demeulemeester (whose real name is Ann Verhelst) founded the brand in the Belgian city in 1985. Together with her husband Patrick Robyn (who paused a career in photography to focus on the company), they built a cult following that adored the brand’s romantic aesthetic and deconstructivist tailoring.
Antonioli, who also owns a nightclub, a restaurant and a dog shelter on the outskirts of Milan, has made a career of finding community. He started as a buyer and opened his first multi-brand store, Antonioli, in Milan in 1987. Over the years, it grew into a chain with boutiques in Milan, Lugano and Ibiza, specializing in avant-garde fashion and young designers. “It’s important when you have a multi-brand store to invest your money into helping the next generation of designers get discovered,” he says.
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