Last night, Steffano Gallici took guests back to Ann Demeulemeester‘s regular show space in Paris’ 6th arrondissement, Réfectoire des Cordeliers. Characteristically, all interiors were jet black, and each guest was greeted by a zine filled with references to pillars of the Demeulemeester universe, from the music of The Velvet Underground to the literary feats of Jack Kerouac and the oeuvre of Kenneth Anger. Front row attendees included the likes of Jenna Ortega, Jack White, Demi Lovato, and Corey Fogelmanis, while actors Jamie Campbell Bower and Coco Gordon Moore made appearances on the runway alongside models Natasha Poly and Amelia Gray. As the lights went down, Australian musician Aimee Nash and Gabe Van entered the show space for a live performance, soundtracking this season with ambient vocals.

Titled The Solitary One: A Love Story in Rebellion, Gallici toes the line between restraint and abandon. In a self-written declaration of ‘Lost and found thoughts’ on the collection, the designer charts his childhood trajectory of basketball fanatic to literary hero worshipper, bringing together characters from the court and the Regency era to life on the runway. The heroines of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice co-exist with the characters of Danny Sugerman’s Wonderland Avenue, charting tales of life spent on the road in LA’s glittering clubs and the underground characters who inhabited them. “One dressed in lace and social customs, the other in leather and addictions, both telling tales about people trying to love without destroying each other, or themselves,” said Gallici on Austen and Sugerman’s co-existence. Both works place romance at their core, charting the relationships of Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, and Danny and Tiffany in Wonderland Avenue, and both love affairs are equally charged with the rebellion at the core of Gallici’s universe.

Classical romance and 1970s spirit unite on the runway in the form of corsets worn with distressed denim, delicate silk slips paired with chunky biker boots, and military jackets walked alongside sweat-stained jerseys. Sheer flowing gowns and feathered headwear built layered, poetic forms alongside sharp tailoring and sweeping leather trenches. In reference to the designer’s basketball days, empire line skirts and lace shirts meet collegiate shorts and hand-sketched T-shirts. The colour palette remains somewhat muted, faded hues of greys, creams, reds and blacks allude to memories fading, recalling times past, reminiscing on romance that once was. Closing out his show notes, Gallici wrote, “In this imagined world, uniformity is undone with grace: rather than rebellion for its own sake, it is style as emotional performance. And me? I’m still wearing basketball shorts to bed some nights.” Proving the unquestionably cool co-hort of Ann Demeulemeester’s tribe aren’t always clad in leather and drainpipe skinnies, it’s just as cool to rock basketball shorts – but when no one’s looking.