RAF BY RAF SIMONS

Raf Simons - graduated in industrial design. Started working as a furniture designer for galleries and private interiors. In a radical change of profession in 1995 he became a self trained menswear fashion designer. Lives and works in Antwerp, where his studio is based. Teaches fashion at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and acts as a consultant/buyer to a private Antwerp art collector.

Although they are impeccably cut and created with love and care, clothes are not at the core of Simons’ universe. More important are attitudes, moods and statements. That’s why music, art, performance, images and words have an important role in the whole package. Together with the clothes, those elements sum up, or rather clarify the kind of world Raf Simons wants to project. In an attempt to examine today’s mens and boys psyches (and in the same take his own), he takes his inspiration from the rebellion of past and present youth cultures and blends this with notions of tradition and roots.

Pride in individuality – his clothes are both inspired by and designed for confident outsiders. His references to youth movements (punk, Goth and mod etc) are not meant to be retro; instead Simons tries to translate their energy and determination into modern statements about mental independence. Simons has many ways to avoid the trappings of the fashion system, most notably his choice of models. Disagreeing with the common images of male beauty and identity forwarded by most fashion magazines and advertising, Simons from the start of his career only used non-professional models, often scouting them on the streets of Antwerp or other Belgian villages.