Raf Simons

It was really a rave, I'd say.

It was a rave and it was very unusual for me to get out of bed at that time, but it was really fun to see it and to see a very different side of Prada, which is more about Raf Simons and his love of techno.

And I kind of love that, you know, you could have the most sophisticated outfit and a show that's dedicated to 63 iterations of the skirt and Mrs. Prada's uniform, but at the same time it speaks to... a younger crowd that loves techno music and parties late at night.

It's a very interesting mix and very few houses can do it.

subtleYes, it is incredibly subtle, and I think that there's an established order and audience of, what would you call them, Sanderistas and Sanderistas.

And Sander's had m- I mean, not least with Raf Simons, it's had many iterations over the years.

But I think that he's playing with the fundamental kind of severe minimalism that was also very feminine-centric of Sander, not entirely unrelated to Prada seating back in the day, in a very interesting way.

I think it's an aficionado show.

Is this a place of connections as well, those stilettos and socks? Does that get people talking? I mean, is this where you have, I don't know, creative directors from everywhere considering their next moves?

Yeah, I mean, Raf Simons himself, who's the co-creative director of Prada, was on the dance floor at one point next to us, which was pretty amazing.

And I was there with a colleague from the commercial team who I think was keen to close a deal that evening, even though it was 1.30 a.m., so she was talking to someone from Prada.

I mean, I spoke to a few people.

Like, uh, Dior, so many of them with John Galliano were so memorable.

The one with Raf Simons and Dior with the flowers to me was like so special.

Then one memorable, I'll tell you from the first season, Helmut Lang.

It was actually a funny story.

especially from international audiences, right? So like France and Paris really blew up sort of again in the context of men's fashion.

You had RAF blowing up again.

And then you had a couple of New York brands who were slightly before that who had blown up and then sort of fizzled out, right? That was Trump 1.0.

Then Biden came in.

Unfortunately, during my second year already in school, he, uh, he stepped away from his brand, so I was a bit like, "Okay, shit, what I do, do, what I'm gonna do now?" [laughs] But, um, it was definitely not Ann Demeulemeester or Haider Ackermann.

I al- I mean, I, I, I love their work, uh, still to this day, but back then- At least during my like formative years in fashion design, it was, it was, uh, yeah, Martin Margiela, and then at one point even also Raf Simons, especially on the menswear part.

Um, and then if you're digging into Raf Simons, you easily end up, uh, with Helmut Lang.

Um, so these three were more like, uh, I was more gravitating towards them.

Yeah, but I mean also, um, Martin Margiela is not even, uh, I think he's, was not even a designer in or an artist in a classical sense.

You know what I'm saying?

And Raf.

Yeah, exactly.

And Raf.

And Raf Simons, dude.

It's all, it's all of that, man.

Like, it's...

[laughs]