For the Ann Demeulemeester FW26 campaign, Stefano Gallici and his team travelled to the English seaside town of Margate. Against the chalk cliffs and wide beaches, models Betsy Gaghan and Ezekiel Conteh walk along the shoreline, photographed by Nikolai Von Bismarck and styled by Elodie David.

“Two kids enjoying life on a sunny day by the sea, walking elegantly,” reads the accompanying press release. “Striding, actually; like antelopes. There is something almost unnatural about the way they move through the town of Margate: two young figures against the brightness of the afternoon, passing fishermen, old houses, empty streets and the endless blue of the sea. They seem to belong to the landscape, yet somehow exist outside of it. Is it a dream?”

It’s a narrative that feeds through Ann Demeulemeester, a fashion house deep-rooted in romance and rebellion – the earthly and the ethereal. For Gallici’s FW26 collection, titled Dear Night Thoughts, the designer turned towards notions of memory, youth and the elusive pull of artistic dreams; inspired as much by the poems of Arthur Rimbaud as the lyricism of Marc Bolan.

Margate itself fits the theme nicely. Its Victorian architecture and faded seaside grandeur sit alongside its more recent history as a destination for young artists looking for an alternative to London’s exorbitant prices. The town has long attracted literary and artistic figures: Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens and T.S. Eliot all spent time there, and more recently the likes of Tracey Emin, Pete Doherty and David Bowie – who formed his formative band The Lower Third in Margate in 1965.