Ann Demeulemeester Leaves Her Company Ann Demeulemeester, one of the Antwerp Six designers who brought an original, if gloomy, look to fashion in the 1980s, has decided to leave her company, she said on Wednesday. With characteristic understatement, Ms. Demeulemeester made her announcement in a handwritten letter sent by email to news outlets. "I always followed my own path," she wrote. "A new time is coming both for my personal life and the brand "Ann Demeulemeester." I feel it's time to separate our paths. Ms. Demeulemeester may well be retiring from fashion, although she did not specify in the letter. Nor did she say who will continue to manage her Antwerp-based company. Presumably it will be Anne Chapelle, whom the designer brought in as a manager in the mid-1990s. Ms. Chapelle could not be reached for comment. The designer said that her next men's and women's collections would be shown together in late January. She also said that her brand had reached the stage where it could be run without her. Ms. Demeulemeester first hit the fashion scene in 1986, when she and five other up-and-coming Belgian designers, including Dries Van Noten, presented their novel designs in London. The press immediately referred to them as the Antwerp Six. Separately, they established their own identities on the Paris runway. Ms. Demeulemeester focused on spare, asymmetrical tailoring and drapery, typically in black or white. She quickly built a following with stores like Barneys New York for her well-cut, slouchy trousers, filmy knits and masculine jackets and accessories. Over the years the essence of her romantic vision remained the same, with flourishes that reflected changes in taste and her own ideas. She did collaborations with the artists Jim Dine and Patti Smith. "I'm not confused about what's happening in fashion, because I follow my own direction and go," she said in a 2006 interview.