Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Colour Combos, Cryptic Signs & Critical Success: What Raf Simons Will Bring To Prada

The announcement of the co-creative directorship between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons is a groundbreaker of such seismic potential that the entire world of fashion is hanging in anticipation of the double-debut, which will happen in Milan next season.

The primary question causing so much excitement is what the clothes — for women and men — might look like when two of the smartest independent heads in fashion begin to spark off each other. What does Miuccia most look forward to in doubling up with Raf? Her answer, unequivocally: having fun. She wants to “broaden the horizons of what fashion can be, and also to have fun. What I mainly think is that you have fun when you really do good stuff, and that fun comes with other people.”

That quote comes from an article in System magazine in which she and Raf sat down to have a free-wheeling conversation in June 2016. There’s a link to it on Raf’s website. Their brainstorm seems to have triggered the creative explosion about to take place at one of the most prestigious brands on the planet. “On all levels, I can sense Miuccia's very clear vision, her mindset, her view of the world, her view of art, her political opinions,” said Raf. “And as one person, she is able to construct and share that on such a huge scale. I find that mind-blowing.”


They’re long-standing friends, their relationship dating back to at least 2005, when Raf was hired as creative director at Jil Sander, which was then owned by the Prada group. It was his first chance to design for women, having established himself as the leader of Belgian brotherhood and of teenage subcultural style since 1995.

The critical success of Raf’s seven-year Jil Sander residency was his lift-off for a career that took him into the big league as a creative director. His three years at Christian Dior between 2012 and 2015 was followed by his rebooting of Calvin Klein as Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, which lasted from 2016 to 2018. All the while, he’s continued with his own label.

Now that he’s joined up with Miuccia Prada, here’s a forensic look at Raf Simons’ playbook — the differences and the similarities of style that he’ll be bringing with him to merge into the Prada universe.

Raf loves colour

A bold taste for strong colour combinations is a consistent stamp of Rafology. He’s consistently punctuated his collections with electric blue, primary yellow, fuchsia, emerald green, red, in pure shots and vibrating clashes.

He’s a minimal tailor 

The cut of a black tailored suit has always been insistently present in Raf-designed collections. The sensational black Bar Suit tailleur — with which he opened his first Christian Dior haute couture fall 2012 show — was an assertion of the Raf suit, which can be tracked in near-identical form through his own collections and his Jil Sander days. Miuccia Prada is likely to see eye to eye with that ungendered unifier.

He likes volume

From the beginning, Raf has supersized outerwear. What started with his own outsized hoodies and parkas in his underground fall 2001 show (which predated the ‘streetwear’ phenomenon by years and riffed off Martin Margiela, who he idolises) gave way to the spacious coat silhouettes that are now a permanent signature. He cuts that cool drama in classic and glamorous ways, for men and women.

White shirts, black ties 

There has hardly been a Raf collection when white shirts and skinny black ties don’t feature. What will happen at the feminist house of Prada when this signifier of male business uniform — with all its ambivalent power politics — comes up for debate in the women’s sphere?

He has a captive male audience 

Loyal followers of Raf’s insider-symbolism and his valorisation of teen subcultures of the 20th century — punk, techo, new wave, rave, gabber — mean that all eyes of two male generations (those who lived it like Raf and his friends, and now millenials and Gen-Z boys) will be magnetised by what will happen when he hits Prada menswear. Miuccia will get a crash course in tapping into northern European youth iconoclasm. How will the results differ from his own line?

He’s a secret romantic
 
Raf has a sensitive, emotional side, which goes beyond his nostalgia for lost youth. At times, it has given fabulous expression to a far more directly referenced kind of romanticism than Miuccia has ever allowed herself. Will Raf persuade her to let herself go with the unforgettable 1950s prettiness he created at Jil Sander, and the incredible museum-worthy, 18th-century-influenced gowns and embroidered frock coats at Dior? She might find that it’s fun.

He’s a fan of bare arms

Sleeveless tops are totally a Raf signature for men. Likely to go arm-in-arm with Miuccia’s same Italian penchant for women.

We will see shorts

Male leg exposure is a constant Raf-ism. Will we soon be seeing shorts transferred to Prada womenswear?

He likes to label 

Raf’s cryptic signs and symbols, stuck on in patches and sometimes printed on tape, have crossed over from his own collections to Christian Dior and Calvin Klein. Will he and Miuccia be concocting a new secret joint language to keep Prada fans tantalised into the 2020´s?

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