Often in interviews I am asked to name designers I admire. Sure, there is that triumverate of designers (Marc Jacob, Alber Elbaz & Nicolas Ghesquiere) to whom I always look to get a read on what's to come. But there are a couple of others who I respect and admire for other reasons. They happen to be women, and they also happen to be two designers who have remained independent and always followed their vision of how to dress women. For that reason, success wasn't quick and easy for them, but I think that that is probably why I admire them all the more. Those two women are Isabel Toledo and Ann Demeulemeester.

Ann Demeulemeester holds a particularly soft spot in my design heart, most likely because of all the visits I used to pay to her store in Antwerp, well before I knew that I was to step into the world of fashion myself. Her women, and clothes, have always been strong, usually brooding, intellectual types with a hard bent for rock and roll.

So to see her Spring 2009 collection, with its use of bold colors and ethnic tones was a surprise for me, a very fantastic and breathtaking surprise. When I saw the stills, do you know what I thought? If, in these grim economic times Ann Demeulemeester's collection can show hope, then I think we all can.