From the Chiasmus archive: "Raf Simons. Menswear, RTW Fall 2021." Posted May 17th 2021 by CHIASMUS MAGAZINE BLOG
If there was ever a fashion designer who encapsulated movies or at least visualizing the concept of film and its delivered aesthetics, it would be Raf Simons. Of the many shows that he has represented with his unique and very original stylizations, it was in lieu of two shows that stand out for me, which was his menswear collections for both his Spring and Fall 2018 collections, with the Spring styles on show representing the very influential and archetype 1983 science fiction movie BLADE RUNNER, with his models depicting, underneath a Manhattan train bridge, Simons’s dystopic post-human world. Which, when looked at now, in this rescission of COVID-19 on our society, what will be left in its wake is an alteration of humanities place within nature, in the context of living with a new virus. It might well and truly be a hint of things to come, that could be of other significant changes to civilization. But, it was his Fall 2018 array drawing from heroin addiction, which in its retrospection goes beyond any melodrama but rather the grim reality of its incapacitating habituation, depicted in the 1981 German movie CHRISTIANE F, that, even now with a event that is this pandemic, the scourge of drug addiction and its impact on society will continue to assail the many caught in its grip.
Yet, Simons use of film and the spectacle of cinema, in his early shows, also reflects the surfeit and evince that the fashion industry is, despite his, at times, cautionary story telling. There is a flipside of the self indulgence and global excesses which has been seen on the runways. Since joining Miuccia Prada’s fashion power house in 2020 as the brand’s co-director, Simons has streamlined and most certainty toned down, for his Spring 2021 co-debut with Prada, the more risqué stylizations which he was renown for under his own signature label. To which the many who follow Simons unique modernist take on fashion, hope that he has not watered down his motion-picture show inspired themes too much. Now returning with his two shows per year schedule, beginning with the Spring 2021 collections combining Menswear and Ready-to-Wear, he has reassured his fan base that the Raf Simons label will carry on with its quirky, film and popular culture influences.
So, for his Fall 2021 showing set within a backdrop that is akin to a West Germany era science fiction set ala the 1966 Sci-Fi series Raumpatrouille Orion, so there is a futurist montage to his latest collection. With the avant-garde, that Simons has refined over the many years, trend now emerging in 2021. The open question will remain on how offbeat collections will become in the coming months, as the lockdowns throughout Europe begin to ease and vaccination passports could become mandatory – the dystopia overtures of experimental fashion may start to ring true. Things could could get pretty wild out there on the runway. In the meantime, Simons has offered a clue whilst merging his stalwart Bauhaus futurist designers with a Prada esque feel ala over sized quilted coats and jackets with his clean and precision tailoring remaining. However the printed catchphrases of previous shows are non existent, rather what has appeared in their place are the sleeker outer stitched Raff Simons labeling on collars and sleeves, with some morbid detailing seen as jewelry, such as skeleton hand clasps around forearms and earings displaying a ribcage.
There is no doubt Prada is having an effect on Raf Simons, but whether it will be vice versa remains to be seen.
(A.Glass 2021)
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