Photo: Andrew Thomas

Ann Demeulemeester showed black suits that were cut  slim in the legs and gathered high at the waist and then paired with big, overcoats and worn with military-inspired boots and thick furs, as well as feather collars and boas.

Ann Demeulemeester was a key member of the Antwerp Six, an influential group of designers who graduated  from the Belgian city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the early eighties.

Ann Demeulemeester showed trousers that were skinny, but expandable by zippers, with waists gathered like paper bags and belted repeatedly. Blazers were with squared-off shoulders came in washed fabrics, shadow stripes and jacquards, and were worn with a longer piece underneath for a layered look.

Belted wrap coats featured cowl-necks for a bundled appearance. The brooding sense of melancholy lifted when boas and trims burst with exuberant cock feathers.

Ann Demeulemeestar is one of the pioneers of the dark Romantic or gothic fashion. This gothic fashion, originated in London, in the late ’70s.

The gothic look can be traced back to the late ’70s. Bauhaus released an album in ‘79, with the single Bela Lugosi’s Dead. In 1982 the Batcave opened in London. The current Twilight, and vampire, look, is derivative of this dark gothic underground music/fashion from the late ’70s, and early ’80s. What was once avant-garde, or underground is now mainstream.

“When the Batcave opened in July 1982, it was not intended to be a “goth” night, nor were the existing “goth” bands high on the playlist. Instead, it was seen as a reinvention of Bowie-style glam, but with a darker, horror-type twist. As it happened, this fitted in very well with what some of the “goth” bands like Bauhaus were doing, members of such goth bands frequented the club and eventually it became the prototype goth club. Obviously, individual Bauhaus and Banshees fans were already looking “goth” before the Batcave opened, but the Batcave can probably be held responsible for turning the goth look into a “fashion” as such- it got a lot of exposure in the press”…