Seeking Beauty
"You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation...and that is called loving. Well then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is only your aversion to it that hurts, nothing else."
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
Spring/Summer 2009
"I saw pictures of Hermann Hesse and I really liked the man. He was so beautiful in his fragility, so old and so fragile and so rich in spirit that I had to do something with it! I thought it would be beautiful to do a show where you have the fragility of the very young, and the fragility of the very old, and put them together. The older you get, the wiser the clothes would be. The young would be black and the older would be beautiful, shining and white, like an angel. It was an experiment - I wanted to break the rule of the young and the beautiful. I wanted to show the old and the beautiful.
The oldest model was 87! I thought he was the most beautiful. It was amazing to me how proud they were, they had so much dignity. To be able to give them that made me so happy that day. They were so much more proud than the young guys. It was amazing to see their grace. It was a real experience."
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"I hope I add something that was not there. The most beautiful compliments that I get from people is that I added something to their consciousness when they put on my clothes."
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(Ann Demeulemeester in conversation with Dazed Digital)
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