Clearly, Ann Demeulemeester loves anything that screams rock-n-roll. Her dark and moody collections are iconic of her name and today's Spring 2014 show during Paris Fashion Week was no different. Drawing from her Men’s Spring 2014 RTW line, she uses the same bold floral motifs throughout this collection in excess, pairing decorated stocking with embellished coats and laser-cut dresses. It was kind of cool.
The combination of dark colors and floral brocade gives the whole collection a modern, almost gothic-romance feel. By using materials that move and allowing the fabric to drape she softens the harshness brought on by the heavy use of black and the angular cuts.
The large, gauzy hats, while not particularly flattering (nor functional), lend themselves to this same romantic aesthetic. They do compliment some of the sheer black outfits quite well considering their titanic proportions, but revert to gaudy head pieces when paired with any other ensemble.
While most individual pieces look very wearable, some look a little hard to pull off. Even a plain black tank top couldn’t help the monstrosity that can only be described as striped, floral, potato-sack pants. And while I’ve always been of the mindset that the most beautiful women can pull off any look, these pants aren't doing her any favors. These are probably the strangest things I’ve seen over the course of all four fashion weeks—and I saw the Thom Browne collection.
But most of the pieces are great. Pair some of these floral stockings with a black leather mini-dress and you’ve got an outfit you can kick ass in. And some of these shirts and floor-length gowns, while a little sheer, have the perfect youthful rock vibe. Basically if you can get past the initial shock of pattern overload and the burlap parachute pants, it’s an awesome collection.