On his Instagram account, as is now the custom when it comes to announcing big changes, Raf Simons announced that he was ending his eponymous brand, twenty-seven years after its debut. “Words fail me to express how proud I am of all that we have accomplished. I am grateful for the incredible support from my team, associates, press and buyers, friends and family, and our dedicated fans and loyal followers.”writes the Belgian designer in a post titled “Memory Wear 1995, Station to Station, Alda & Jacques”. A sibylline formulation that few people will understand. Some clues: Alda and Jacques are the first names of his parents and 1995 the year of his first collection. The brand’s latest, the spring-summer 2023 line, was presented in London in October, in a rave-party setting.
Graduated in 1991 in industrial design from the school of Genk (Belgium), Raf Simons began his career by imagining furniture for various galleries, before branching off into fashion and creating his own brand of men’s clothing, completely self-taught. Inspired by youth, art, subcultures, music or even stage performances, the silhouette of Raf Simons is architectural and refined. Throughout these twenty-seven years, it has nurtured a reflection on the formal pieces of the men’s wardrobe. From 2000 to 2005, the clothing technician also taught fashion design at the University of Vienna.
Visits to Jil Sander, Dior, Calvin Klein
Alongside his eponymous label, Raf Simons has also collaborated with major fashion houses. In 2005, he was appointed artistic director of Jil Sander. He excels in the construction of a minimalist and feminine silhouette. In 2012 he joined the Dior house where he took over the management of the studio following the departure of John Galliano. He brilliantly reinterpreted, until 2015, the codes of the house: the Bar suit or the A line, which plays on the proportions of the bust. He then moved to New York and took over the style reins of the Calvin Klein brand for two years. Flash passages, always acclaimed by critics, but sometimes too heavy for the creator. He explained that he found the rhythm of the collections and the workload too heavy at Dior, for example, during an interview for System Magazine in 2015.
Finally, in 2020, he is teaming up with Miuccia Prada to sign the collections of the Italian house with four hands. Their spring-summer 2023 collection, presented in Milan in September, explores the fabric in its rawest form: threads escaping from the seams, wavy fabrics, folds marked with an iron…
The end of the Raf Simons brand sparked a wave of tributes on social networks, including those of many former collaborators. Among them, Pieter Mulier, today artistic director of the Alaïa house and who was for a long time his right arm, or Matthieu Blazy, head of style at Bottega Venetta: “First a mentor, a boss, then a friend and now a brother. Thank you for the inspiration and education”wrote the latter, specifying that he obtained his first job in fashion in 2007, alongside Raf Simons.
The creator, who grants few interviews, did not explain the reasons which push him today to put an end to his label. His collaboration with Prada continues, however. The next men’s collection will be presented in Milan, in January 2023.
