Raf Simons

Raf Jan Simons (born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer.

Raf Simons was born on 12 January 1968 in Neerpelt, Belgium, to Jacques Simons, an army night watchman, and Alda Beckers, a house cleaner.

Simons graduated in Industrial Design and Furniture Design from LUCA School of Arts in Genk in 1991.

During this time, Simons congregated at Antwerp cafe Witzli-Poetzli with the likes of Olivier Rizzo, Willy Vanderperre, David Vandewal and then-girlfriend Veronique Branquinho to discuss fashion, namely Helmut Lang and Martin Margiela.

He began working as a furniture designer for various galleries, having previously interned at the design studio of Walter Van Beirendonck between 1991 and 1993.

Van Beirendonck took him to Paris Fashion Week and that was when Simons first saw a fashion show—Martin Margiela’s all-white show in 1991—which inspired Simons to turn to fashion design.

Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995.

Encouraged by Linda Loppa, head of the fashion department at the Antwerp Royal Academy, Simons became a self-trained menswear designer and launched his Raf Simons label in 1995.

His first collection was in Fall–Winter 1995, and featured two street models in a video presentation.

From Fall–Winter 1995 to Spring–Summer 1997, Simons's collections were shown either in presentations or videos.

Raf Simons 1995 also includes homeware, namely blankets and cushions.

On November 21, 2022, Raf Simons announced via its Social Media Channels that the SS23 collection would be the last collection from the label before he closes it down after the end of the season.

Fall–Winter 1997 saw his first runway show in Paris, France, with a look of 'American college students and English schoolboys with a background of New Wave and Punk'.

Music has formed an integral part of Simons's work, with references to musical figures such as the Manic Street Preachers's Richey Edwards and Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and his Fall–Winter 1998 collection (Radioactivity) featuring looks modelled after members of German electro band Kraftwerk.

Simons's early aesthetic incorporated youth culture from divergent sources, such as the Spring–Summer 2000 collection taking inspiration from both MENSA students and the Gabba youth subculture (a predominantly Dutch and Belgian movement associated with hardcore techno music).

In March 2000, Simons shut down his company to take a sabbatical after his Fall–Winter 2000 collection (Confusion).

Following a new deal with Belgian manufacturer, Gysemans Clothing Industry, the company was started back up again for Fall–Winter 2001.

During this time, Simons's international prominence grew with the collection for Spring–Summer 2002 (Woe Onto Those Who Spit On The Fear Generation ...The Wind Will Blow It Back) becoming one of his most influential due to its 'layered, hooded, sinister image of the urban guerrilla'.

The company was restructured in October 2004 with a distribution deal with Futurenet (Europe and USA) and Mitsui & Co. (Asia), followed by a license agreement with Futurepresent (joint-venture of Futurenet and Mitsui Italia).

He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin Klein (2016–2018).

The aesthetic of the Raf Simons brand has changed since 2005, as former Arena Homme Plus editor Jo-Ann Furniss asserts: "The key turning point was A/W 04-05 (Waves), when the obsessive youth culture codes of his past were turned into clothes that were purely about shape and form."

In June 2005, Raf by Raf Simons was launched, which was sold at a lower price point.

Simons also released the book Raf Simons: Redux about the first 10 years of his career.

Alongside the publication, there was also an exhibition of Simons's work and an outdoor fashion show at the Pitti Immagine Uomo tradeshow in Florence, Italy for a retrospective of the designer's career at the age of 38.

In 2008, two flagship Raf Simons stand-alone stores opened in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, in collaboration with the artists Sterling Ruby and Roger Hiorns.

Since 2008, Simons has created collections in collaboration with British brand Fred Perry.

From Spring–Summer 2008 onwards, Simons has collaborated with Linda Farrow on a collection of sunglasses for the brand.

Simons has designed three collaborations with American bag manufacture Eastpak: Spring–Summer 2008, Fall–Winter 2008 and Spring–Summer 2009.

The Autumn–Winter 2009 collection saw the first Raf Simons advertising campaign, photographed by Willy Vanderperre.

Since Fall–Winter 2009, Simons has also collaborated with running shoe manufacturer Asics.

In 2009, Simons used denim bleached by artist Sterling Ruby to create a capsule collection of denim wear jeans and jackets.

This deal came to an end with the Spring–Summer 2011 collection.

In 2011, Raf by Raf Simons was replaced by Raf Simons 1995, a diffusion line incorporating elements from Simons's early collections.

For the Fall–Winter 2013 show, a new limited-edition footwear collaboration with Adidas was announced featuring five different designs.

The collaboration has continued for the Fall–Winter 2013 season.

In 2014, Simons once again collaborated with Ruby, jointly designing a Fall–Winter 2014 collection, which was presented in place of Simon's eponymous line and carried the label 'Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby'.

In 2014 Raf Simons began a collaboration with the Danish design and textile company Kvadrat that would translate into a collection of textiles and accessories.

The Kvadrat/Raf Simons collection received great recognition in the media and is distinguished by the blending of colour and materials for which the designer is known in the fashion world.

Raf Simons would later come to include the Kvadrat/Raf Simons textiles in his A/W 15 menswear collection.

As of 1 April 2020, he is the co-creative director of Prada, in partnership with Miuccia Prada.