DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT: Ludovic de Saint Sernin

Born in Brussels and raised in Paris, Ludovic de Saint Sernin graduated from l’ESAA Duperré and worked for prominent French houses Dior, Saint Laurent, and Balmain before launching his namesake label in 2017, immediately gaining accolades for his sensual and individual take on fashion. After two seasons, the brand was nominated for the 2018 LVMH prize and caught the attention of designers, Rick Owens and Marc Jacobs. 

photo creds | newyorktimes.com

De Saint Sernin’s designs take inspiration from artists like Robbert Mapplethorpe and explore the facets of gay sexuality. His collections apply the 90’s supermodel era to men’s clothing making Ludovic de Saint Sernin, one of the raciest menswear brands. 

Now known for his genderless vision, De Saint Sernin’s initial focus was on womenswear but after meeting his fit model Raphael, De Saint Sernin used him as an inspiration and focused on menswear. 

“I like the idea of a woman being able to look at one of the boys from the presentation and think she could wear that same look. So you could say my vision of fashion is quite personal. For me, this collection is a coming-of-age story”, he said in an interview with Vogue.

In the past couple of weeks the fashion world has been completely revamped. Following Alessandro Michele’s departure from Gucci, the shuttering of Raf Simons’s eponymous label, and Estée Lauder’s agreement to buy Tom Ford, a huge shift has been made and is creating room for variation and more recently, the Claudio Antoniolio-owned Ann Demeulermeester brand has named Ludovic de Saint Sernin as it’s creative director.

photo creds | gayletter.com

De Saint Senin’s appointment signals a creative change for the company. Although Ann Demeuelemeester stepped away from the namesake label nearly a decade ago, Demeulermeester herself has been heavily involved, running it with an unnamed design team. 

Sensuality, tension, silhouette, fluidity, wildness, and a graphic feel are defining pillars of the language Ludovic de Saint Sernin is about to build as he traces the new course of Ann Demeulemeester, injecting his approach to fashion as a tool to shape and free one’s presence and appearance, the brand said in a statement to WWD.

In a teaser of his vision for the label, de Saint Sernin released a set of images, photographed by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Oliver Rizzo, in which he wears items from the Ann Demeulemeester archive dating back in the 1990s.

Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s first collection for the Ann Demeulemeester brand will be unveiled in March of  2023 during Paris Fashion Week.