Romance and modernism, strength and fragility – such are the juxtapositions that defined Ann Demeulemeester’s work at her eponymous label, which launched in 1985 in Antwerp and quickly gained a devoted cult following for the languid, poetic designs rendered largely in black and white. In 2014, she would exit the label.
Now, after successful furniture and homeware lines – both created alongside Belgian design brand Serax – and the label’s purchase by Claude Antonioli in 2020 (who promised greater involvement from Demeulemeester and her original collaborators going forward), the designer this week released her first eponymous fragrance.
Dark romance: Ann Demeulemeester’s fragrance, ‘A’
Ann Demeulemeester, photographed in 1992
Titled ‘A’ – chosen for being both the designer’s initial and also as the foundational first letter of the alphabet – the evocative fragrance promises to capture the darkly romantic spirit that is synonymous with Demeulemeester’s collections. Genderless and crafted from what the label describes as a lifelong fascination with scent, it centres on ingredients refined in their ‘rarest, purest’ form.
These include light, hazy top notes of clove, cumin, Ceylon cinnamon, Sicilian lemon and Calabrian bergamot, before getting to the heady heart of the fragrance: ‘narcotic’ jasmine, May rose and rich tones of birch-oiled leather, a fitting nod to her punk-infused collections. The scent is completed with earthy base notes of patchouli, vetiver, rose and sandalwood, each derived from cold-pressed essential oils.
The sleek, columnar glass flacon that encases the fragrance is modernist in design, adorned with a letter ‘A’ that is visible through the ‘citrine-coloured’ perfume. The box itself – evocative of a blank canvas – is designed to recall the designer’s Antwerp boutique, while a portrait of the designer by husband Patrick Robyn in 1992 is fixed to the interior. Demeulemeester calls Robyn her ’partner in life and creativity’ and the pair’s son – Victor Robyn – created the perfume’s visuals.
The result, says the brand, is an evocative, instinctive fragrance that reflects the emotional language which has run throughout the designer’s work – ’the essence of Ann Demeulemeester’.
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