The Story Of Ann Demeulemeester And Punk Rock Goddess Patti Smith
Ann Demeulemeester, Belgians reigning queen of high fashion design
, has long identified American punk-rocker-turned-poet, Patti Smith, as being a major source of inspiration. In fact, the two sometimes collaborate.
Hence why audience members at Ann Demeulemeester shows should not be surprised, for example, to suddenly be treated to a surprise poetry reading by Patti Smith.
But what is it that has brought Patti Smith and Ann Demeulemeester together? One wonders if there any clues in their backgrounds.
Birth
Ann Demeulemeester was born in 1959 in Waregem, a Flemish town near Ghent. Her muse, Patti Smith, had been born thirteen years beforehand, in faraway Chicago.
Religion
Patti Smith was raised as a Jehovahs Witness; Ann Demeulemeester, as a Catholic.
Parents
Ann Demeulemeesters father is a dapper looking man whose photo sometimes appears in fashion blogs, but, his lifes work was focused on chicory. He published academic articles on the root, which he also farmed. Patti Smiths mother was a waitress and her father, a factory worker.
Love lives and children
Ann Demeulemeester has one child, a son, Victor, with her husband, photographer Patrick Robyn. The couple have been together since their teens. Patti Smith gave up her first child for adoption in 1967. After enduring that loss, she moved to New York City, where she began a now famous relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who would eventually come out as gay. The two would remain close, however, until his death in 1989 from complications arising from AIDS. Patti would eventually marry Detroit rocker Fred Smith, with whom she would have two children, including a son, Jackson, who is now married to the drummer of The White Stripes. Sadly, Fred would suffer a fatal heart attack in 1994.
Artistic influences
The title song from Patti Smiths seminal 1975 debut album Horses includes a mention of one of
Ann Demeulemeesters favourite poets, Rimbaud. (After high school, Patti Smith followed briefly in her fathers footsteps, by working on an assembly line in a factory. She found this time grueling, and was uplifted by the discovery of Rimbauds Illuminations, which she claims to have stolen from a thrift shop.)
First encounter
Ann Demeulemeester first encountered Patti Smith as an artist by stumbling across Horses in a record store in 1976. This was just before leaving her hometown for fashion school in Antwerp. It was the picture on the cover, of an androgynous-looking Smith in a white dress shirt, that she remembers most. She resolved at that moment that she would one day meet Smith in real life.
As for Patti Smith, she wouldnt become aware of
Ann Demeulemeester until sometime in the early 90s. She received, out of the blue one day at her home in Detroit, a package with a beautiful white shirt from the designers latest collection. She felt as though it had been designed for her.
Patti Smith has since gone on to provide the soundtrack for Ann Demeulemeester shows, to perform live at the shows, and to model for them.
And so ends our look at the similarities and differences between Ann Demeulemeester, who has been called the Queen of Antwerp, and Patti Smith, the Godmother of Punk. But perhaps the true reason behind their connection is chemistry.
by: Percy Evans
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