(So I guess this is my first official menswear post.)
I love Raf Simons-I'm gonna start my first post with utter designer infatuation. And while I have always appreciated clothes that have a concept behind them, there really isn't any intellectual depth to this collection. Yet Raf Simons makes up for this with an extremely well thought-out collection and a highly entertaining take on the modern dandy man.
Almost instinctively, I find myself asking, "How did he do that?" and I'm also afraid my next few sentences will be embedded with chummy love messages. This collection is funny in a way that it is somehow not the usual formula for success. Raf has employed the same use of neon colours in his previous menswear and womenswear collections and it is also a wide known fact that the fashion crowd is a very fickle bunch. In theory, this collection would never ever be lauded for its creativity. But it seems it is quite the complete opposite. There's something both familiar and distant here-the colours have gone up a few notches, the neon water-colour flowers have been stripped off, the same impeccable tailoring but with a whole different structure and ingenuity.
The best pieces are simple and at first glance, seem nothing at all- a boxy suit with a t-shirt underneath. Yet they have somehow worn into my consciousness and I keep coming back to look at them, and wondering why I keep coming back.
I am intrigued by the use of fabrics (would materials be a more appropriate term?) here. Suits are made out of what seems to resemble felt, giving it a loose, unstructured fit round the body. Knits and jackets are done up in some sort of foamy neoprene, and it will warrant my visit to the showroom. The material nerd in me wants to snuggle up to a pile of orange and salmon pink knits and because I'm a total creep in real life, there's a high chance I might start caressing them against my face and pee around the pile to mark my territory. The suits are cut up to spectacular proportions, with much emphasis placed on the shoulders. The vibrancy of colours only serves to further highlight the simplicity of Raf's clothes. While I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to afford any of these, I like the idea of layering knitwear in different shades, and might toy around with the idea of incorporating primary colours into my wardrobe. But other than that, I am going to continue my fantasies about having that orange foamy quilted knitwear (with that bubblegum pink shirt underneath because we all know how perfect they look together) and that salmon pink jacket (I don't get how it's so voluminously perfect.)
I guess at the end of this we are left asking ourselves how Raf never fails to create and invent, even if it's within a field that hardly ventures further than a pin-striped three piece suit. But the answer doesn't really matter-the mystery surrounding it only leaves us wanting more. Raf really is the new king.
