Raf Simons was born in 1968 in Neerpelt, Belgium, the son of a night-watchman and a cleaner. He studied industrial and furniture design at Genk. A visit to the Martin Margiela Spring 1991 show re-directed him into fashion. He apprenticed briefly to Walter Van Beirendonck and launched his own menswear label in 1995.

The Vocabulary

Simons’ early collections drew, provocatively, on the imagery of teenage boys — skater, goth, post-punk, hardcore — rendered in Antwerp tailoring. The 1998 Radioactivity and the 2001 Riot, Riot, Riot remain the most-cited menswear shows of the decade.

The Major Houses

From 2005 to 2012 he ran Jil Sander, re-establishing minimalism as a serious couture proposition. From 2012 to 2015 he ran Dior — the first major couture appointment of a designer who had not come up through couture — producing eight collections that are credited with the contemporary Dior’s commercial foundation. From 2016 to 2018 he ran Calvin Klein, which he re-theatricalised as an American cowboy house. In April 2020 he joined Prada as co-creative director with Miuccia.

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I am only interested in design. Not in being a designer. — Raf Simons

He closed his own eponymous label in 2022 to concentrate on Prada. His archival influence is now visible in any contemporary youth-menswear collection.