The paper-like material of this sleeveless top and knee-length skirt is the precise reason for their good condition: they were simply too fragile to be worn often. The donator and former curator of applied arts at the Centraal Museum, Ida van Zijl, knows exactly where she bought the ensemble and when she wore it: to the opening of the Rietveld exhibition that she curated in Belgium. Ann Demeulemeester was part of the famous Antwerp Six design group and established her own fashion house in Antwerp in 1985. She designs mainly for women like herself; strong, independent, inquisitive, intuitive with a bit of bite. Her own interpretation of her collections is, “I want to see the woman in the clothes, not the designer who has dressed her”. She always wears black, it being “the strongest and most poetic colour there is”.