Raf Simons by Willy Vanderperre.
Raf Simons has become one of fashion’s most central and celebrated figures since emerging into the industry in 1995. Alongside his eponymous menswear label, Simons has contributed to fashion through several creative director roles at Jil Sander, Dior, Calvin Klein and more recently, Prada. For such a prolific designer, you’d think that fashion was everything to him. But in a conversation with the New York Times, Simons revealed that he in fact “had a love-hate relationship with fashion, […], in a way, I was completely obsessed and attracted and I loved it; on the other, I hated it”.
Despite his turbulent relationship with the medium, he certainly made fashion his own, being a self-trained designer who consistently pushed the boundaries of what clothing is and what it represents. Fixated on youth culture, and the rebellion that comes with it, his minimalist yet subversive designs signalled a shift from fashion’s glamorised, sexualised aesthetics proposed by other designers at the time in the late 90s. “I’ve come to really question the system,” he said in an interview in 2014, “as much as I am part of it, I have to question it for the simple reason that I wonder how far it can go. How far can it go until the moment that it might not work any more?”
Raf Simons SS23. Image Courtesy of Vogue Runway.
His last [and final] show was a debut on the London Fashion Week calendar, and was perhaps Simons’ conclusion to his question. Housed at the club Printworks, which is also set to close its doors later this year before being turned into flats, audiences gathered in anticipation of what seemed like an exciting future for the House. What we didn’t know however, was that this was Simons’ final show under his eponymous label. While Simons will [thankfully] remain in fashion under his co-creative directorial role at Prada, the end of Raf Simons as a label is certainly the end of an era.
In celebration of Raf Simons, we take a look back at some of the designer’s greatest moments in fashion.
AW97: Raf Simons Debut Runway Show
Technically, this wasn’t Simons’ first show, per se. He had already debuted his label in 1995, through an 8mm film featuring Branquinho presenting his early menswear collection. However, his official runway debut was in Autumn Winter 1997. Staged in Paris at Impasse de Mont-Louis, models walked around over overpasses wearing slim-cut, youth-inspired designs.
1998: The Fourth Sex
While this is perhaps not strictly a fashion moment, The Fourth Sex is certainly an embodiment of what Simons meant when he said “I don’t want to show clothes, I want to show my attitude, my past, present and future…I use memories and future visions and try to place them in today’s world.”
Rebellion in the form of a book, The Fourth Sex brings together an impressive amount of visual material symbolic of Raf’s adolescent experience across 359 pages. From collages of punk magazines to pictures of youth in the urban landscape, The Fourth Sex is an ode to the pure innocence of ‘coming-of-age’; all the pains, pleasures, anxieties, joys and curiosities that come with it.
Raf Simons SW2001. Images Courtesy of Vogue Runway.
AW2001-2002: RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!
One simply cannot talk about Raf Simons without mentioning the iconic AW2002 RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! collection. This was Raf’s first collection after taking a break from designing to teach as the Head Professor of the fashion department at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Drawing inspiration from the Ukrainian and Romanian youth who were often found around Vienna’s flea market, this collection ditched slim tailored suits and focused on radical oversized outerwear. One of the most iconic pieces from this collection is the bomber jacket, which has become one of fashion’s most coveted garment, a holy grail of sorts – with one selling for $47000 in 2020.
Raf Simons SS2002. Image Courtesy of Vogue Runway.
SS2002: Woe Onto Those Who Spit on the Fear Generation… The Wind Will Blow it Back
While this collection was made within the zeitgeist of 9/11, the show was about “the opposite of 9/11 — it’s about freedom.” Graphic imagery and typography, made in collaboration with Peter De Potter under Raf’s direction, embellished silhouettes as models stomped barefoot down the runway with red flares in hand; symbols of a restless generation.
Raf Simons Redux, 2005, via archivepdf.net.
2021: Raf Simons Archive Redux
In 2021, Simons reissued 100 of his most iconic pieces in a capsule collection called Raf Simons Archive Redux. By rereleasing some of his most notable archival pieces (such as a hand-painted parka from AW04, the classic black blazer from SS99, jumbo sweaters of AW16 and AW14 Sterling Ruby pieces), Simons showed is belief in fashion as an artform.
The name of the collection is a nod to Raf Simons’ 2005 book “Redux”, which brings together the world of Simons together through imagery, philosophy and essays to elevate an understanding of the designer and his label. Rejecting standards, the collection and the book both nurtured die-hard Simons fans, while welcoming a new generation into his world.