For Spring/Summer 2027, Ann Demeulemeester enters the desert. Creative director Stefano Gallici titled the collection “Lonesome Heaven,” drawing inspiration from a solitary drive through the California landscape near Palm Springs, with Kyuss playing loudly in the car. That sense of isolation, dust, music and endless road became the emotional foundation of the collection.
Presented in Paris on October 3, the co-ed collection stays deeply connected to the house’s romantic darkness, but Gallici gives it an unmistakably American, sun-scorched edge. For our purposes, the menswear is particularly strong: lean, distressed and deliberately imperfect, somewhere between a desert drifter, faded rock musician and nineteenth-century dandy.
The Ann Demeulemeester Man Heads West
Looking specifically at the menswear in the runway images, the first thing that stands out is the silhouette. Gallici keeps it long and narrow, but never overly precise. Jackets sit close to the torso before giving way to loose trousers; shirts extend into ribbons and fringes; trousers puddle around boots and sandals; and layers appear as though they have been assembled over years rather than styled five minutes before a runway show.
Black remains essential, naturally, but Lonesome Heaven is surprisingly effective when Gallici moves away from it. Weathered white, cream, dusty gray and faded blue denim break through the darkness. The restricted palette of black, white and washed blue puts greater emphasis on texture, aging and layering.
And everything looks better because it isn’t pristine.
There are scuffed trousers, distressed denim, fraying knits, worn leather and fabrics that appear marked by dust. Gallici described approaching different historical wardrobes almost as though his younger self had discovered old clothing in an attic and started experimenting with it.
That idea comes through beautifully in the men’s looks.
Tailoring Without the Formality
Some of the strongest moments are the suits.
A white double-breasted suit, worn with a pale blue shirt and neck scarf, turns conventional tailoring into something softer and almost decadent. Elsewhere, black jackets are paired with narrow trousers, sandals and scarves rather than traditional shirts and ties.
The tailoring occasionally carries traces of military uniform, but Gallici strips away its authority. Jackets are distressed, shirts hang loose and decorative elements interrupt their formality. Historical high collars, ruffles and elongated cuffs appear alongside leather, denim and cargo trousers.
One particularly good look combines a cropped white jacket, powder-blue shirt and relaxed gray trousers. Another sends a black waistcoat over a pale shirt and ripped blue jeans tucked into heavy black boots.
It’s classic Ann Demeulemeester tension: masculine tailoring fighting against romantic fragility.
Leather, Denim and the Desert Rocker
Then comes the rock wardrobe.
Dark leather jackets, washed jeans, sleeveless tops and heavy boots give the collection its harder side. A brown leather coat worn over battered blue denim is especially effective because nothing appears new. These aren’t clothes pretending to belong to a rock musician—they look like clothes that have already survived the tour.
The connection isn’t accidental. Gallici’s desert experience was soundtracked by Kyuss’ Welcome to Sky Valley, and Kyuss co-founder Josh Homme appeared on the runway.But Gallici doesn’t simply recreate ’90s stoner-rock style.
Instead, he collides it with ruffled shirts, old military uniforms, tuxedo tailoring, scarves, embellished vests and romantic nineteenth-century proportions. A black jacket and waistcoat can suddenly feel Victorian; seconds later, a leather vest and cargo trousers pull everything back toward contemporary street dressing.
That collision is where Lonesome Heaven works best.
Menswear Made to Move
There is also an appealing looseness throughout the collection.
Fringes trail from shirts. Long knit fibers hang almost to the knees. Leather trousers collapse over footwear. Scarves are left untied. Shirts extend beyond jackets. Even otherwise conventional trousers are allowed to bunch naturally at the ankle.
Gallici seems uninterested in creating a perfectly groomed man.
His man is beautiful precisely because something is always slightly undone.
The exposed chest beneath tailoring, distressed surfaces, low-slung trousers and almost improvised layering introduce sensuality without relying on obvious nudity. Even the embellished black tank seen on the runway transforms a basic masculine garment into something delicate and precious—the collection’s push and pull between toughness and vulnerability condensed into a single piece.
A Wardrobe Already Lived In
Perhaps the most compelling idea behind Lonesome Heaven is time.
These garments aren’t presented as objects fresh from a luxury boutique. They appear inherited, discovered, damaged, repaired and worn again.
Gallici even describes a deteriorated tuxedo imagined through an old Billy Wilder film: ceremonial tailoring essentially worn down toward eternity.
That sentiment suits Ann Demeulemeester remarkably well.
Rather than chasing the clean minimalism that has dominated much contemporary menswear, Gallici embraces clothes carrying evidence of a life: dust on trousers, torn denim, leather softened through wear and tailoring that has lost some of its original discipline.
Fashionably Male Verdict
Ann Demeulemeester Spring/Summer 2027 is menswear for the romantic outsider.
There are familiar house codes everywhere—black tailoring, elongated proportions, poetry, rock ‘n’ roll, historical references and masculine/feminine ambiguity—but Lonesome Heaven feels particularly convincing when Gallici lets those codes become dirty, faded and personal.
The best men’s looks don’t feel like costumes from another century or another rock era. They feel like someone opened several wardrobes from different periods, took whatever spoke to him, threw everything into the back of a car and disappeared into the California desert.
And somehow, after all that dust, leather, denim and decay, the result remains unmistakably elegant.
