Page 16 - OCEAN BLUE - WINTER 2016

ON THE MOVE "The arrival of Raf Simons
as Chief Creative Officer
RAF signifies a momentous new
chapter for Calvin Klein. Not
since Mr. Klein himself was at
the company has it been led by
one creative visionary, and I
am confident that this decision
will drive the Calvin Klein
brand and have a significant
impact on its future.”
- Steve Shiffman, CEO
Calvin Klein
SIMONS
R af Simons is
expected to
breathe his
own design
aesthetic into Calvin Klein
simultaneously providing
cohesion among the various
facets of the brand while re-
vamping their image.
The Belgian graduated from
Industrial and Furniture
Design lending his vision to
furniture for galleries until
being encouraged to try his
hand at fashion.
In 1995 he launched his
eponymous brand and since
then he has constantly been
on the move, while constantly
challenging the consumer
with his industrial design
background of straight lines
and artist-inspired clothing
lines.
Simons balances his own
designs with those for fashion
Photo: David Sims and Norman Jean Roy
16 WWW.OCEANBLUEMAGAZINE.COM
houses, often working music
and visual artwork into his
designs. He was head professor
of the Fashion Department
of the University of Applied
Arts, Vienna, Austria until
June 2005. Simons co-
authored an autobiographical
retrospective book entitled,
Raf Simons Redux with Peter
De Potter, coinciding with
his label's 10th anniversary.
He added womenswear to
his repertoire with Jil Sander
with whom he was Creative
Director for seven years, then
moved on to Christian Dior,
and now he is taking charge at
Calvin Klein.
The clothing guru of teenage
subcultures, be it his ADIDAS
collaboration of over-sized
shirts, or his Mapplethorpe-
framed images on flowing
falling off-the-cuff shirts,
Simons is sure to rock Calvin
Klein with his inspired
creative vision.