Raf Simons
Simons since 1995 designer of his own menswear brand Raf Simons and was from 2005 to 2012 creative director of Jil Sander AG. Since 2012 he is the successor of John Galliano artistic director of the women's collections of Christian Dior.
- 2.2 Christian Dior
- 2.3 Jil Sander
Career
Simons was born in 1968 in the Belgian Neerpelt in Limburg, Flanders. After studying industrial design in Genk 1991 he graduated at the Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck an internship, where he designed, among other showrooms, 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 associated training he moved after a few years in the fashion industry and brought in 1995 in Antwerp his first fashion line for men under the name Raf Simons out. The first collection was characterized by narrow, linear silhouettes with quotations from Punk and Gothic. In the New York Times Simons was in the tradition of Helmut Lang as the inventor of the stressed narrow men's silhouette that more and more spread from the late 1990s in men's fashion and the finally the designer Hedi Slimane was particularly known at Dior Homme, appreciated. Simons ' minimalist fashion is, inter alia, to the present day characterized by slim-cut suits, short jackets, of deconstructed cuts, innovative forms, from layered look or futuristic influences. The logo of the Raf Simons main line is a curved ' R', which is, for example embroidered on selected tops.
As of March 2000, Simon took a year off in which he let down his fashion label. His designs can Simons at the show, held in Paris fashion shows exclusively by non-professional models who he recruited in the suburbs on the road. Through his provocative conception by masked guys in overalls and hooded sweater he brought in 2001 two months before the attack on the Twin Towers, the attribute of " fashionable terrorists" one. 2005 came the youthful second-line RAF by Raf Simons, in which often the first name RAF for as a visible logo the clothes, joined the portfolio. For the brand Raf Simons made in Tokyo and Osaka in 2008 opened his own boutiques.
Raf Simons taught from 2000 to 2005 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and head of the fashion class. His predecessors were there, the Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf (1999 to 2000); its successor, the Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho (2005 to 2009). Branquinho ( b. 1973 ) and Simon were romantically involved from 1995 to 2000.
Simons is considered at least since the late 1990s internationally as an influential fashion designers. He lives and works in Antwerp in Antwerp ( for Raf Simons) and Paris ( for Dior ) and until 2012 also in Milan ( for Jil Sander ). Simon is regarded as shy and sensitive.
Jil Sander
Simons was founded in 2005 with his team, committed by the head of Prada Group, Patrizio Bertelli and took over on 1 July of the same year as creative director, the design team of the former Prada - daughter, Jil Sander AG. His first show was presented in Milan in early 2006. Until his commitment at Jil Sander Simons had designed no women's fashion. Following the sale of Jil Sander by Raf Simons, Prada was retained by subsequent owners of the brand Jil Sander as a designer of women's and men's collections. Its part of the avant-garde designs were highly praised in the wake of the international press.
The company Jil Sander announced on 23 February 2012 that the collaboration with Simons would be terminated by mutual agreement of February 27. Tags Subsequently, the company stated that the company's founder, Jil Sander, on 28 February 2012 back return to their company as a designer and thus antrete Simons ' successor. On February 25 2012 the last appearance of Raf Simons as creative director of Jil Sander found at the Milan fashion shows at the presentation of the Jil Sander women's collection for autumn / winter 2012/ 13 instead, in which he said goodbye to the catwalk in tears from the spectators.
Dior
9 April 2012 Simon was ( Prêt -à -porter and haute couture ) appointed after long speculation by the French fashion house Christian Dior for chief designer of women's collections. Simons had hitherto not haute couture fashion designed. His first haute couture collection for Dior was presented on 2 July 2012 at the Cultural Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian in Paris and praised by the press. Simons ' first prêt -à -porter collection for Dior was shown in Paris end of September 2012 and well received.
Collections
- RAF by Raf Simons - second line for men in the upper middle price segment, since June 2005,
Cooperations
- RAF by Raf Simons Eastpak - Luggage series in collaboration with Eastpak, 2007-2008
Christian Dior
- Ready- to-wear - womens' clothing fashion in the upper price segment, from 2012
- Haute Couture - Ladies tailoring collection in the top price segment, from 2012
Jil Sander
- Jil Sander - Women's and men's clothing fashion in the upper price segment, from July 2005 to February 2012
- Jil Sander Navy - high-priced second-line for ladies, 2010-2012