In Ann Demeulemeester, we ride. Foot down, road wide, we go and go and go, in leathers, chiffon, tassels in the wind. Journey over destination. Instinct over reason. Titled Road to Never, this was the attitude that fuelled Stefano Gallici’s Ann Demeulemeester FW25 collection. Guided by time spent in California, the designer looked towards America’s counterculture heritage – particularly the notion of travel engrained in the country’s history, on four wheels or two. the Wall of References book left on each guest’s seat included images of US license plates, Hell’s Angels and Woodstock crowds. These references that Gallici curates each season and presents alongside his collections are core to the designer’s practice, he’s a collector at heart. “What matters is the journey, not the destination. One finds oneself only by getting lost into the unknown, discovering new grounds,” Gallici wrote in an accompanying statement.

You know Gallici’s easy riders when you see them. All noir couture, draped textures, sheer fabrications, black-on-black leathers and rock ‘n’ roll romance. Here, the House’s poetic, debonair tailoring was matched by leather waistcoats, shearling, shredded knitwear, and vampish ruffles. Lace-up trousers, western hats and studded belts. Bandanas headbands, and Dennis Hopper aviators. Silhouettes seemed to form around each model, like living incarnations of memories, adventures, roadtrips. There are stories written in Gallici’s designs.

The era referenced by Gallici’s moodboard this season is critical – a seminal moment in counterculture lore, defined by two monumental free concerts: the free-loving, free-spirited Woodstock ’69, and the Rolling Stones at Altamont Speedway, which descended into brutality and murder when the Hell’s Angels rode up to ‘work security’ (immortalised in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter). With that, the Summer of Love was officially over, and a darker spirit spread: Let it Bleed became not just a defining record, but a statement of the time. This balance of light and dark mirrors Gallici’s design language, reworking delicate, ethereal materials through slashed DIY distress, structured outerwear, and layers of uniform. Take Look 19, for example, an incredible, delicate dress crafted like cobwebs weaved across the body, or Look 22, worn by HERO 32 star musician Malice K, with ruffles spilling across worn and torn denim, and thin straps of fabric floating around biker leathers.

The haunting guitar reverb of The Cult’s (now known as Death Cult) Billy Duffy pierced the air, a band who famously found inspiration in the stars and scars of Sunset Boulevard, and the desert beyond, much like Gallici and his FW25 collection.