Interview with Stefano Gallici












ESSX interviews Stefano Gallici, Creative Director of Ann Demeulemeester to discuss his creativity, influence of music on his designs, and the energy of New York City that continues to inspire his work.

Since you’re here in New York for the event, we’d love to hear how the city’s rich artistic history has influenced your collections and its connection to the Ann D brand.

What does being in New York bring out in you creatively?

New York, since my teenage years, has played a key role in my world of inspiration. The aesthetic that shaped the New York of the ‘70s and ‘80s, especially the punk-rock scene, around CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, Chelsea Hotel has always been a North-Star in my Wall of Reference.

Nowadays in terms of creativity, when I come to the city, New York shapes me of feelings more then a precise aesthetic canon. While this cold morning I’m walking down the city, all these feeling of anonymity, freedom and effortlessness pervade me, a glimpse to start working on a new story, character or campaign, who knows.

Music has always played a significant role in your shows. In your Kids series, you featured many young musicians and artists from your world. How has the Ann D musician evolved in terms of style and attitude over the years?

I never think about a musician and straight forward at its style, in a certain way every character it’s different, and that’s the beauty of KIDS to me.

There’s no evolution in terms of style, if the evolution is the word we wanna stick to, well it comes from the personality of every character.

There’s sure an evolution in terms of collections, but all this artist/musicians makes the looks alive and real outside a runway.

Do your clothes take on a different meaning when worn in New York? How would you compare the fashion you see here to what you experience in Italy?

Of course they do, and that’s what fascinates me about being in New York, US in general I have to say, even if there’s wide different views from my playgrounds in LA and what’s happening here in NY.

In general I love how there’s a different interpretation of Ann Demeulemeester in general somehow here feels more youthful, playful and fun too. When I’m in Europe there’s a more austere feeling for the brand, probably we are more stick to the heritage in itself here, I’m trying to break these boundaries and of course I’m fascinated about something unknown and widely explorable as I consider the scene and the crowd that dress AD here in NY.

Lastly, what are you exploring aesthetically for your next collection?

Spoiler Alert? I’m diving into ‘Hell’s Angels: A trip to the Edge of Hell” by Hunter Stockton Thompson, somehow this book will hit me in aesthetic terms too.