A dark gloomy atmosphere overtook Raf Simons’s latest show for Spring Summer 22.
With a palette of black shades, models came out on the runway in wet scrunchy hair, knee socks and heavy black shoes… carrying looks which felt like a sinister reinterpretation of school and corporate uniforms.
Simons is not a designer to shy away from challenging society’s preconceived notions on dress codes and today the creative director addressed genderless dressing with gothic undertones, envisioning boys and girls in sack dresses and pleated skirts. Models were dressed in oversized striped buttoned shirts with cuffs and overarching arms, skeleton bracelets, black netted fabrics meshed with cozy sweaters and voluptuous bomber jackets.
There were a few splashes of colour to balance out the dark undertones, the equilibrium was achieved with the placement of the vibrant eerie fonts on tailored suits, which felt like the type of prints you would find on t-shirts sold at a rock concert.
In an interview with Vogue, the designer reflected on his school years at LUCA School of Arts in Genk, expressing that, “Maybe (the collection) is autobiographical, I don’t know, I was in a college that was almost monastic in a way. You were supposed to be this, you were supposed to be that, you couldn’t dress like this, you had to dress like that… It made me think a lot,”.
