Stefano Gallici Steers Ann Demeulemeester Toward a Confident Revival

Ann Demeulemeester is back, and the numbers say so plainly. Sales at the Belgian label have surged approximately 40% year-on-year under designer Stefano Gallici, a figure that lends hard commercial weight to what has otherwise been a creatively contested revival.

The Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, shown Saturday, made the strongest case yet for Gallici's vision. Titled "Dear Night Thoughts" after the diary he kept as a rebel teenager in northeastern Italy, the show arrived as a genuinely personal statement: hints of varsity and school uniforms pressed against officer's jackets, tattered dresses over lace underskirts, rusted leathers beside cut-off tailoring. Business of Fashion called it "an avalanche of ruffles and plenty of black, artfully cut with denim, rusty brown and deep burgundy." Gallici described the collection himself as "Worlds in collision," and the result was, in Business of Fashion's assessment, "the designer's most convincing to date: his Demeulemeester vision more fully formed than ever."

What gives the moment its particular weight is a detail that has nothing to do with the runway. Owner Claudio Antonioli revealed that the label's founder called personally to praise a recent advertising campaign shot by photographer Nikolai Von Bismarck and released in February. "Ann Demeulemester in person called us to compliment on the campaign we recently launched," Antonioli said. For a reboot that has navigated real friction with the label's legacy fanbase, that phone call functions as something close to a formal blessing.

That friction has been real. Gallici has been consistent about not leaning too heavily on the archive, a position that initially drew criticism from longtime Demeulemeester devotees who wanted closer fidelity to the founder's original aesthetic. The brand has instead pivoted toward what Business of Fashion describes as "a new, indie-boho clientele," a shift that has clearly found its audience even if it unsettled the old guard.

Antonioli is moving to lock in the momentum. The reported strategy pairs an expanding retail footprint with the introduction of pre-collections, both aimed at keeping the brand visible and commercially active between main-season shows. The specifics of which markets or how many new locations remain unconfirmed, but the intent is clear: build on the growth rather than wait for it to plateau.

For a house that spent years in uncertain hands, the convergence of a 40% sales jump, a creatively maturing designer, and a founder who liked what she saw is a genuinely rare alignment.