Raf Simons
| Raf Simons | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 January 1968 Neerpelt, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Education | Industrial Design and Furniture Design |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Parent(s) | Jacques Simons Alda Beckers |
| Awards | Swiss Textiles Award 2003 |
| Website | rafsimons.com |
| Labels | Raf Simons (1995－) Raf by Raf Simons (2005.06－) Jil Sander (2005－2012) Christian Dior (2012－2015) |
Raf Simons (Dutch pronunciation: [rɑf ˈsimɔns]; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer. Beginning in furniture design, he launched his own menswear label in 1995. In April 2012 he was announced as the creative director at Christian Dior. On October 22, 2015 he resigned from Christian Dior. On August 2, 2016, Simons was announced as the new chief creative officer at Calvin Klein. Simons's first collections will debut for the Fall 2017 season.
Raf Simons was born on 12 January 1968 in Neerpelt, in the province of Limburg, Belgium, to Jacques Simons, an army night watchman, and Alda Beckers, a house cleaner.
Simons graduated in Industrial Design and Furniture Design from a college 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 1991-1993.
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.
Encouraged by Linda Loppa, head of the fashion department at the Antwerp Royal Academy at the time and now director of the prestigious italian fashion school Polimoda , Simons became a self-trained menswear designer and launched his Raf Simons label in 1995.
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