Unlike fashion, art isn’t applied. It doesn’t have to serve anybody. It doesn’t have to be there for any other reason than to give an impression of what the world is about. – Raf Simons
Every weekend, I’m on the highway to Antwerp. I need to be there, to have the calm. It’s a whole different life: I jump on my bike, and it’s so small, I can be anywhere in a minute. I like to be at home when there’s free time because when you’re at a big company, you’re constantly surrounded by 30 people. – Raf Simons
I am somebody who focuses on a dialogue between generations – that’s the drive of my work. I believe the young generation take the power; they’ll take over at one point, but the older generation, they’ll push it away only because of the fear. I’m the opposite; I’m curious. – Raf Simons
I never really have to sit at a desk thinking, ‘What should I do now?’ It doesn’t work like that for me, and it never has. My thinking process is constant. – Raf Simons
One of the first things I picked up when I was very, very young out of a record store was work from Peter Saville – the early things he used to do for Factory Records. – Raf Simons
I couldn’t go now to a brand that had a niche attitude like… gothic. I couldn’t do that. Well, I could do it, but I wouldn’t find it interesting, challenging. – Raf Simons
Fashion is so mass-produced now; I hope there will come a refocus on how people see couture. And I would also hope for a new focus on the craft. – Raf Simons
I’d like to see fashion slow down a bit. What freaks me out about fashion today is the speed – the speed of consuming, the speed of ideas. When fashion moves so fast, it takes away something I always loved, which is the idea that fashion should be slightly elusive. Hard to grasp, hard to find. – Raf Simons
I don’t have so many things in the fashion world that interest me. It’s probably because I am so deeply into it. Often when you go very deep into something, you also discover what it’s about, and you understand it better. With the art world, I still have a lot of curiosity. – Raf Simons
I am always attracted to the moments when a person who is associated with a certain message, image or sensibility evolves. I am very interested in how audiences respond to that maturation and absorb the evolution. – Raf Simons
In fashion design, you can divide people into two groups. You have people who come with an aesthetic that is there forever, even if it evolves. Then you have people I call ‘jumpers.’ One season it can be this; the next season it’s completely something else. I always knew I am more of a jumper. – Raf Simons
I’m a designer, and for me, things are always evolving, and such evolution is necessary. – Raf Simons
I was growing up in the New Wave period, but that wasn’t allowed in school. I remember moments when they wouldn’t let four people dressed in black stand together on the playground. – Raf Simons
If I see a fashion show with literal influences, it doesn’t make me think any more. It doesn’t make me dream. – Raf Simons
My inspiration is endless; I can’t define it. It is a constant flow and evolution. In general, I’m taking it from everywhere. People get nervous when they walk with me, as I’ll see something and suddenly have to text it to myself. – Raf Simons
I’m very scared sometimes that fashion might attack its own magic by the amount of exposure. – Raf Simons
Until I was eighteen, I did not know that you could study fashion design or art. I really didn’t know. I already had my nose in the art world; I was already looking at things, but I didn’t really get it that you could study that because my school was a very different environment. – Raf Simons
I want to get away from couture just being done for a picture or for a single moment on the red carpet. I want to try and convince women that couture can be worn in the day and that there’s a reality and relevance there, because that’s what Mr. Christian Dior wanted. – Raf Simons
As an industrial designer, you design the thing by yourself, and then it goes away from you, whereas fashion is in constant relation to the body and to psychology. It makes it more complicated, and it makes it more challenging. – Raf Simons
My ideas for the next collection always happen a couple of months before the show. I have learned to shut up and not bother my assistants with it. – Raf Simons
Fashion is such an octopus. You’re connected to so many people: suppliers, pattern makers, production teams, marketing teams, vendors. – Raf Simons
