Style Dot Com got the exclusive look at the upcoming 032c Raf Simons 20 year retrospective issue that features a lengthy interview with man himself. The excerpt features Raf dishing on the Internet and how fashion is afraid to evolve. Some choice quotes from easily one of the greatest fashion designers of our time are below.
Raf would prefer to go anonymous if he could:
We don’t advertise. We simply put our clothes out there. I am very proud of it. I know for a fact that our business comes from press, journalists, and clients believing in the brand and not because they are obligated.
He also wishes people would go deeper with things, rather than scroll through a Tumblr feed:
I am more interested in mystique and romance, what’s difficult to find, aesthetics that are not in your face. When I think about images, naturally I am more attracted when I feel there is certain meaning, when someone is trying to say something. You have to investigate. You are prompted to investigate and understand, more than merely consuming the image. It’s how you judge looking at everything you see. There are things you immediately know are surface, and other things the opposite, and I’m more interested in the opposite. When you find everything so easily, you don’t look deeply anymore and you don’t investigate anymore. And you get bored.
He believes fashion is a bit too structured today and that there is not enough freedom anymore:
I am very happy with where we are with the brand right now, and our freedom especially. To give you an example, I don’t see Dior or Chanel collaborating with someone who happens to be a close friend on a shared label, like I just did with Sterling Ruby. On the other hand, I see so many young people automatically buying into the fashion system as it is structured today, as if the individual can no longer do things differently. I really wonder if that’s going to be the real future of fashion.
However, there is a network and openness that wasn't there before that he likes:
But I have the feeling something is changing. I wouldn’t say we’re taking care of each other. But we’re opening up to each other, which, after 20 years, is unprecedented. It’s proof of a serious fear, in all kinds of ways, about where the fashion world is evolving
