Raf Simons
Raf Jan Simons (born January 12, 1968 in Neerpelt ) is an internationally known Belgian industrial and fashion designer .
Simons has been the designer of his own men's fashion brand Raf Simons since 1995 and was creative director at Jil Sander from 2005 to 2012 . From 2012 to 2015, he succeeded John Galliano as Artistic Director of Christian Dior's women's collections . From August 2016 to the end of 2018, he was Chief Creative Officer responsible for design in all divisions at Calvin Klein in New York . At the end of February 2020, Prada announced that Simons would work alongside Miuccia Prada as co-creative director at the Italian fashion house from April 2020.
Career
Raf Simons was born in 1968 in Neerpelt , Belgium , in Limburg , Flanders . After studying industrial design in Genk in 1991, he completed an internship with the Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck , where he designed showrooms, among other things, and finally began to work as a furniture designer for galleries and private clients. On the advice of the then head of the fashion school of the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and without any relevant training, he switched to the fashion industry after a few years .
Raf Simons
In 1995 Simons launched his first men's clothing line in Antwerp under the name Raf Simons . The first collection was characterized by narrow, linear silhouettes with quotes from punk and gothic . In the New York Times , Simons was honored in the tradition of Helmut Lang as the inventor of the deliberately slim men's silhouette, which spread more and more in men's fashion from the late 1990s and with which the designer Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme became particularly well known . Simons' minimalist fashion is still u. a. characterized by narrow-cut suits , short jackets , deconstructed cuts, innovative shapes, the layered look or futuristic influences. The logo of the Raf Simons main line is a curved 'R' that is embroidered on selected tops, for example.
As of March 2000, Simons took a year off due to the pressure of the growth of his fashion company, during which he put his fashion label on hold. At the fashion shows held in Paris, Simons has his designs presented exclusively by non-professional models whom he recruits on the street in the suburbs. With his provocative conception of hooded boys in overalls and hoodies in 2001, two months before the attack on the Twintowers , he earned himself the attribute of "fashionable terrorist". In 2004 Simons entered into distribution and license agreements with partners (Futurenet srl for Europe and USA, Mitsui for Asia). In 2005, the youthful second line RAF by Raf Simons , in which the first name RAF often adorned the clothing as a visible logo, was added to the portfolio . The second line was discontinued with the end of the Futurenet license agreement in 2011. Mitsui operated boutiques for the Raf Simons brand in Tokyo and Osaka from 2008 to 2012.
Collections:
- Raf Simons - men's ready-to- wear fashion in the upper price segment, since 1995
- RAF by Raf Simons - second line for men in the upper middle price segment, June 2005 to 2011
- Raf Simons Fred Perry - men's sportswear collection in cooperation with the Fred Perry brand in the upper middle price segment, since 2008
- RAF by Raf Simons Eastpak - luggage series in collaboration with Eastpak, from 2007 to 2008
- Raf Simons X Adidas - men's sports shoe collection in collaboration with the Adidas brand in the upper middle price segment
Raf Simons taught from 2000 to 2005 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and headed the fashion class . His predecessors there were the Dutch designer duo Viktor & Rolf (1999 to 2000); his successor was the Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho (2005 to 2009). Branquinho (* 1973) and Simons were 1995-2000 romantically involved .
Simons has been regarded internationally as an influential fashion designer since the late 1990s at the latest. He has apartments in Antwerp and Paris, worked in both cities (continued for Raf Simons and until 2015 for Dior in Paris) and until 2012 for Jil Sander in Milan . After joining Calvin Klein in 2016, he spent a lot of time in New York City. Simons is considered shy and sensitive. He has been in a relationship with former Dior manager Jean-Georges d'Orazio since the end of 2014. In addition to Flemish , Simons speaks fluent English and German and has a basic knowledge of French.
Jil Sander
In 2005, Simons and his team were hired by the head of the Prada Group, Patrizio Bertelli , and on July 1 of the same year took over the design team of the Prada subsidiary , Jil Sander AG, as creative director . His first show was presented in Milan in early 2006. Before joining Jil Sander, Simons hadn't designed any women's fashion. Following the sale of Jil Sander by Prada, Raf Simons was retained by the subsequent owners of the Jil Sander brand as the designer of the women's and men's collections. His partly avant-garde designs were subsequently highly praised by the international press.
The company Jil Sander announced on February 23, 2012 that the cooperation with Simons would end by mutual agreement on February 27. The next day, the company announced that the company's founder, Jil Sander , would return to her company as a designer on February 28, 2012, taking over from Simons. On February 25, 2012 at the Milan fashion shows at the presentation of the Jil Sander women's collection for autumn / winter 2012/13, Raf Simons' last appearance as creative director of Jil Sander took place, where he said goodbye to the audience in tears on the catwalk .
Collections:
- Jil Sander - women's and men's ready-to-wear fashion in the upper price segment, from July 2005 to February 2012
- Jil Sander Navy - high-priced second line for women, from 2010 to 2012
Dior
On April 9, 2012, after much speculation, Simons was appointed chief designer of the women's collections ( prêt-à-porter and haute couture ) by the French fashion company Christian Dior . Up until then, Simons had not designed any haute couture fashion. His first haute couture collection for Dior was presented on July 2, 2012 at the Center Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian in Paris and was highly praised by the press. Simons' first ready-to-wear collection for Dior was shown in Paris at the end of September 2012 and was just as well received. The documentary Dior and Me deals with this period. Under Simons' direction, Dior sales grew 60% from 2011 to 2015. Simons gave up his involvement with Dior at the end of 2015 of his own accord in order to have more time for himself and his own fashion brand. As part of his retirement, he criticized the immense pressure for commercial reasons on fashion designers in the international fashion industry.
Collections:
- Prêt-à-porter - women's ready-to-wear fashion in the upper price segment, from 2012 to 2015
- Haute Couture - women's tailoring collection in the top price segment, from 2012 to 2015
Calvin Klein
Since the beginning of 2016 there had been rumors that Simons would move to Calvin Klein in New York. At the beginning of August 2016, the owner of the Calvin Klein brand, the Phillips-Van Heusen Group, confirmed Simons' appointment as Chief Creative Officer (CCO). The previous chief designer had previously left the company. Simons was responsible for all collections, product areas and brands at Calvin Klein, both for women and men: Calvin Klein Collection (renamed Calvin Klein 205W39NYC in 2017 ), Calvin Klein Platinum , Calvin Klein (White Label), Calvin Klein Jeans , Calvin Small home , accessories and cosmetics.
Simons' longtime assistant, the Belgian Pieter Mulier, who had worked with him at his own fashion brand and at Dior, was appointed creative director at Calvin Klein. Mulier's partner, Matthieu Blazy, got the job of women's fashion designer for the catwalk collection. Simons' partner Jean-Georges d'Orazio had been with Calvin Klein in New York since July 2016.
Although Simons' artistic designs for Calvin Klein were subsequently praised by the specialist audience, the financial success for the company was not achieved with very high costs. In December 2018, PVH announced, by mutual agreement, the immediate separation from Simons.
Awards
- Swiss Textile Award of the Swiss Textile Association , 2003
- Jury President of the Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival , 2011
- International Award (for Dior) from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), 2014
- International Designer Award of the British Fashion Awards, 2014 (nomination only, winner was Nicolas Ghesquière )
- CFDA Women's Fashion Designer of the Year (for Calvin Klein), 2017
- CFDA Men's Fashion Designer of the Year (for Calvin Klein), 2017
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Raf Simons becomes chief designer at Dior , vogue.de, April 9, 2012
- ↑ Star fusion in the fashion universe , sueddeutsche.de, February 24, 2020
- ↑ GQ star portrait: Raf Simons , gq-magazin.de, accessed: February 6, 2013
- ↑ Raf Simons: Curriculum ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , rafsimons.com, accessed: February 6, 2013
- ↑ Competition, dispute and revenge - designer duel on the Seine , tagesspiegel.de, October 5, 2012
- ↑ Saint Laurent: Back at the Chateau Marmont , nytimes.com, October 2, 2012
- ↑ Beyond the Cashmere Blazer , faz.net, June 30, 2009
- ^ Raf , nytimes.com, September 18, 2005
- ↑ Designer Raf Simons: “I don't want to be loved by everyone” , faz.net, May 19, 2016
- ↑ The shy designer is now showing his face , welt.de, 23 August 2007
- ^ Raf , nytimes.com, September 18, 2005
- ↑ This is what the designer has been doing since he left Dior ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , stylebook.com, March 17, 2016
- ↑ Jil Sander is back Dior to the power of two , faz.net, February 23, 2012
- ^ Return of a designer Jil Sander's comeback in Milan - "Hallelujah!" , stern.de, February 27, 2012
- ↑ Jil Sander: Tears at Raf Simons' last show , kurier.at, February 26, 2012
- ↑ Raf Simons becomes chief designer - Dior announces successor to Galliano , stern.de, April 10, 2012
- ↑ It couldn't be more exclusive , zeit.de, July 7, 2012
- ↑ Raf Simons can do couture - Karl stays cool ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , stern.de, July 3, 2012
- ↑ Precision landing: Raf Simons leads Dior into the future , Kleine Zeitung , September 29, 2012, accessed on April 22, 2020
- ^ Raf Simons and the Remapping of Dior , nytimes.com, September 28, 2012
- ↑ Raf Simons becomes Chief Creative Officer of Calvin Klein , welt.de, August 2, 2016
- ↑ Raf Simons takes over at Calvin Klein: One for all , spiegel.de, August 2, 2016
- ↑ Calvin Klein, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Raf Simons as Chief Creative Officer of the Brand , pvh.com, August 2, 2016
literature
- Verena Araghi: The new Helmut. in: Der Spiegel . Hamburg 2006.30 (24.7.), 116ff. ISSN 0038-7452
- "Punk Consumption by Raf Simons" (Die Zeit April 24, 2005)
- "Move !" Interview with Raf Simons (Die Zeit, September 4, 2003)
- Raf Simons Prêt à porter Paris Spring / Summer 2005 in the GQ fashion magazine
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Simons, Raf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Simons, Raf Jan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian couturier and designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 12, 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Neerpelt , Belgium |