Raf Simons was born in a small industrial town in Belgium in 1968. He grew up in a poor family, his mother was a house cleaner and his father was an army night watcher. The surrounding was not creative at all, that is why Simons chose industrial design as his career. In 1991 he was graduated in Industrial Design and Furniture Design and started to work as a furniture designer. At that time, one of his colleagues Walter Van Beirendonck invited him to Paris Fashion Week, where young Raf was affected by the Martin Mangiela’s White show in 1991. Inspired by this designer, Simons decided to turn from industrial to fashion design. After four years of self-study mentored by Linda Loppa (current director the it alien fashion school Polimoda) he launched …show more content…
His first collection for the brand had a great success: "…extraordinary, full of the kind of subtle details and sumptuous fabrics that will challenge the prevailing idea of luxury" (Source: LA Times). Moreover, it was a challenge for him, because he has never designed women clothing before. During Jil Sander period Raf Simons has started from monastic style clothing with a black, A-line simple silhouette dresses with fitted sleeves and buttoned-up shirtdresses made of the most luxurious materials in plain grey, black, blue or white. Working for Jil Sander Simons brought the touch of a heterosexuality for women wardrobe: clean hair, nude make up, short pea coats with sharply delineated volumes, two-button jackets, fly-front coats studded with a single top button and perfect cut classic two piece suits. However, the designer continued moving forward. Compare to his early minimalistic collections, his style evolutionized to femininity. His last creations in 2011 for Jil Sander plain of soft cape-like kimono silhouettes, bustiers topped skirts and sculpted