Belgian designer Raf Simons appears at the end of his Haute Couture Spring Summer 2015 fashion show for the French fashion house on January 26, 2015 04:19pm EST - GONZALO FUENTES
CAIRO – 12 January 2018: Raf Simons creates fashion only for the “Confident Outsiders”, while remixing tradition and the 90’s; he maintains “individuality and independence” as he matures with age. As he celebrates his 50th birthday, we gathered our favorite quotes by the iconic menswear designer and fashion icon Raf Simons.
“I'm usually very attracted to things that I can't define. If something's too clear, it's very often not inspiring to me anymore.”
- Raf Simons
Born in 1968 in Neerpelt, Belgium, he originally studied Industrial Design and Furniture, graduating in 1991. His is internship at Walter Van Beirendonck gave him an insight into the fashion world. In 1995, a self-trained Simons launched his namesake label.
He created menswear collections for Ruffo Research in 1999 spring-summer and autumn-winter 2000. In the same year, he became head professor at the fashion department at The University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, a post he left in 2005. During his position at the university, he was awarded the first prize at the Swiss Textiles Award.
“The fashion world doesn't know the word 'stop,' so you have to make sure there are sublime moments every day.”
- Raf Simons
In celebration of spending a decade in the fashion industry, Simons and Peter De Potter published “Raf Simons Redux” in 2005, documenting Simons’ creative inspiration, imagery, as well as his journey and life in fashion.
In 2005, he was appointed as Creative Director at Jil Sander for both the men’s and women’s clothing. He left in 2012, heading to Christian Dior as the artistic director for women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and haute-couture.
“My challenge is to find a beautiful balance: to make women beautiful, to make a woman dream to wear a beautiful outfit.”
- Raf Simons
In 2011, the Hyères 26th International Festival of Fashion and Photography elected him as President of The Fashion Jury.
He took up the position as Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein in 2016. At the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards in 2017, he took home the Best Designer awards for menswear and womenswear for his work at Calvin Klein.
The Flemish Government, Department Of Culture, Youth and Media awarded him with The Prize for General Cultural Merit at The Ultima’s.
“I see there is a lot of behavior in men's fashion which is systematic. It's a lot about all these kind of clothes that can be easily combined with each other, and it's less and less, I think, about making a fashion statement.”
- Raf Simons
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