radical redux

Raf Simons is reissuing 100 pieces from his iconic archive
Fashion | 7 July 2020
Text Finn Blythe
Above:

Raf Simons Archive Redux / Photography by Willy Vanderperre, fashion by Olivier Rizzo

It’s 25 years since Raf Simons switched from industrial design to launch his eponymous menswear label, presenting his first collection with a simple video presentation of two streetcast models. Since then, the brand and its creator have entered fashion folklore, emitting a level of influence usually reserved for fashion houses many times its age.

In celebration of the landmark, Raf Simons are launching Redux (meaning “to bring back” in Latin), a reexamination of its quarter-century history through 100 archive pieces. Curated by Simons himself, Redux follows similar retrospective projects under the same name, and like those iterations in 2005 and 2015, will chart the most seminal moments of the brand’s history with items that best define its global influence.

Each will serve as a self-contained Zeitgeist, giving younger fans of Raf Simons an opportunity to discover iconic garments for the first time and satisfying, “a nostalgia for the unknown” in the words of the release. This is about distilling the essential identity of Simons’ vision, one that has been routinely characterised, but by no means limited by, multi-disciplinary collaboration, re-contextualised design codes and personal passions. All will be made evident in December of this year, when Redux is set to be made available for delivery.

GALLERY


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