As the lights dimmed and the music started, flowing dark woolen pieces trailed behind ornately plumed models fitted into robust jackets and pants. They projected the primal strength of a contemporary woman conquering the elements with fierce elegance. Fashion is and always has been about survival, after all.

It’s clear that Ann Demeulemeester’s aesthetic is “edgy.” That certainly hasn’t changed this season, evident in the collection’s spectacular theatrics.

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PARIS–”Wow, this looks a fashion funeral,” whispered a photographer setting up his camera as the Ann Demeulemeester show was about to start. Held in a convent on the Parisian left bank, the crowd was suitingly dressed head to toe in black. Was it monastery chic, or paying homage to Ann’s somber taste? We pondered.

“I think I’m ready to move to something pure, clean, but yet abstract,” Ann told us minutes before the show. And indeed she did: the runway consisted of a gradient starting in a pure white, moving onto touches of black, then full-on black. Old Ann, new Ann: she created a balance between a soft, pared down silhouette and her love for layers.

The transition from white to black occurred through prints: Ann created giant patterns onto fabric, that she then cut into clothes: the motifs turned into abstract, haphazard touches of black — at first rare and then gradually denser, for white to slowly fade out. Because many pieces were cut out of the same giant print, “Every piece is totally unique,” she said.

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