Ludovic de Saint Sernin is the new creative director of Ann Demeulemeester

Ann Demeulemeester has always been an independent brand and as such is subject to unforeseen course changes and changes of hands more than any other. The designer who gives her name to the brand retired in 2013, leaving everything in the hands of her dauphin Sebastian Meunier who ran it for seven years until, after a few unconvincing collections, entrepreneur Claudio Antonioli stepped in, buying the brand with the blessing of its founder and sending it on its way for about two years without a creative director. Today, however, the announcement has been made that a new course is beginning for the brand: Ludovic de Saint Sernin, a young indie designer who has gained fame in recent years with his genderless collections becoming one of the hot tickets at Paris Fashion Week, will be the brand's new chief creative officer.

In the teaser photos that accompanied the announcement, De Saint Sernin is pictured wearing archival pieces from the brand-almost signaling that her new approach will be as personal as it is philological. Indeed, it is worth remembering how Ann Demulemeester's fame is extremely linked to her renewed interest in avant-garde archival fashion, a heritage that it will now be up to the Belgian-French designer to renew. The brand's press release also insists heavily on the way the new director will inject her personality into the brand, a move that will surely serve to create new interest but above all to make the brand more relevant and current for today and for a fashion industry in which the value of genderlessness becomes more and more important season after season. The first Ann Demeulemeester collection designed by De Saint Sernin will be presented in Paris next March at fashion week.