Happy Birthday Ann Demeulemeester!

On Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 7:00 pm, No Comments »

Hearing Jennifer Lopez shred Christian Louboutin’s name in her song is tough to hear. When confronted with Ann Demeulemeester’s name I tried to see if I could find a phonetic description because I didn’t want to shred Ann D’s name. I got onto Fashion Spot to see if they could help me. Here is what I got.

“Ann is said like Ahn. Demeulemeester, it is hard to explain but I’ll give it a shot. De is pronounced like hmmmm…..the best thing I can come up with is the ‘i’ after saying the ‘g’ in girl and before saying the r….it’s closer to the g then to the r….meu is said like ummmm…there really is nothing that sounds like it in English…it’s kinda like the ö in Scandinavian languages, perhaps you know that…le is said the same like de….mees is said like the a in space and er is again like de.. “ Sheesh.

So then I went to another site that had a German pronounce it and it sounded like DEH-moo-lah-MAY-ster. That one I can follow.

Anyways, today is Ann’s 50th birthday. In the mid 1980’s there was a group of talented Belgian designers who had a fairly minimalist yet complex style. They were nicknamed the “Antwerp Six.” She is a part of the Antwerp Six. She has come into some criticism about being out of touch with consumers, yet Demeulemeester continues to create smart clothing independent of fashion trends. Her loyal customers, including rocker Patti Smith (who has influenced many of her designs), appreciate her simple, wearable and relaxed style which, despite its practicality, is cool. Her sales are doing well so she can’t be THAT out of touch.

Here are some Demeulemeester shoes for today.