Changing rooms, remember those? Those badly lit places that saved us from ordering online, trying things on at home and putting any returns in the post.
Well, on my recent trip to Antwerp, I stumbled across, what could be, the best changing room in the world. A literally breath of fresh air, and who cares it’s the middle of January and freezing with the door open when you’re looking out onto this. It was other worldly.
You had to remind yourself that this was real and you were looking at it. How very un-Web 3.0.
The Ann Demeulemeester – I always have to look up the spelling – store in Antwerp, her home town, is a strict 90s monochrome palette until you get to the changing room, where the greatest of nature is laid out like a picture before you. What could easily be a nothing space is transformed by tree ferns and mind-your-own-business (that’s a plant, btw). Zen.
It is worth trying something on even just for the alone time with it.
The brand has a recent new designer in Ludovic de Saint Sernin, known for is androgynous designs, but let’s hope he leaves this store just as it is.
Ann Demeulemeester, Leopold de Waelplaats/Verlatstraat, 2000 Antwerpen, BE