Sébastien Meunier’s restrained yet edgy designs are leading a quiet revolution to push the boundaries of individual expression without going over the edge.
By HASSAN AL-SALEH
Photography MATTEO CARCELLI
Power is silence. It may sound like an oxymoron, but not for French fashion designer Sébastien Meunier. For the Creative Director of cult Belgian brand Ann Demeulemeester, his silence is steeped in symbolism, and hypnotically speaks volumes on the contemporary yearning for romantic androgyny and poetic nostalgia.
In 2014, Meunier took over the reigns from the label’s namesake founder Ann Demeulemeester – one of the iconic “Antwerp Six” – who founded the brand in 1985 and carved her own niche and remained fiercely independent with her punk rock, romantic spirit. Imbued with emotion and personal purity, today Meunier continues the exploration of humanity’s soul, allowing its beauty to authoritatively speak the transcendent language of time and eternity.
“Romanticism is something that comes from centuries and millennia and it has always shown the softness of humanity. A kind of poetry that expresses a warm, precious and educated life. At the end, it’s about love. I would like people to live together with the freedom of being who and what they are.”