HOW TO DATE & IDENTY RAF SIMONS
Raf Simons is one of the most influential brands to come out of the 90s. The namesake label of designer Raf Simons – who initially studied industrial and furniture design in Genk Belgium – kicked off with his inaugural AW1995 collection, shown through a lo-fi video presentation, and closed with his SS2023 collection at Printworks London.
The self-trained fashion designer – mentored by Walter Van Beirendonk when Simons was an intern, and Linda Loppa of the Antwerp Royal Academy – captured the zeitgeist with his propensity for spotlighting emerging and historic youth subcultures.
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HOW TO IDENTIFY THE YEAR AND SEASON FOR RAF SIMONS
For the Raf Simons mainline, Autumn Winter 1995-1998 can be identified by the minimal sans-serif Raf Simons neck tag, with white embroidered lettering on a dark navy background. Labels from this year bracket don’t feature the year and season, so referring to runway and archive imagery is your best bet in narrowing down your garment. The brand section of the Truss Archive app is populated with information on Raf Simons years and seasons.
For Autumn Winter 1998 - Autumn Winter 2009, Raf Simons mainline neck tags featured the year and season in full in a serif font. This changed in 2010 when Simons changed the neck tag to a paired back design like pre-1998, removing the year and season.
Raf Simons & Sterling Ruby’s collaborative Spring Summer 2010 collection is an easy one to date because of its unique clothing tags and labels, but from Autumn Winter 2010 to Spring Summer 2014 the year and season are harder to identify. Identifying your garment through referencing the Truss Archive app and runway imagery is your best bet – missing year and season data is an issue Truss is working to rectify.
From Spring Summer 2014, the care labels feature the year and season in an abbreviated form, located below the style code.
HOW TO IDENTIFY RAF SIMONS LINES
Raf by Raf Simons was Simons’s first diffusion line, debuting in 2005 and ending in 2011. This is generally considered an inferior quality line to the main line, released at a lower price point.
Raf Simons 1995 was the 2011 diffusion line referencing Simons’s early work. The neck tag logo is differentiated from the Raf Simons mainline by its red lettering with 1995 in blue beneath the brand name.
Raf Simons Archive Redux was released in december 2020. It celebrated the 25th anniversary of Simons’s eponymous label, with re-issues of his most sought after designs. Pieces from We Only Come Out At Night (AW1996), Virginia Creeper (AW2002) and Closer (AW2003) were amongst the most popular Raf Simons pieces. For this line, the care tag label should include ‘Archive’ under the brand name.
From AW2017 - SS2019, Simons headed the Calvin Klein collection Ck205w39nyc. The year and season for Ck205w39nyc can be deduced from the date code on the second or third layer of the care label. The date will be written in full, with production in the winter months equating to Spring Summer and vice versa.
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RAF SIMONS COLLECTION TITLES
A breakdown of every Raf Simons collection is available on the brands section of the Truss Archive app.
AW96 "We Only Come Out At Night", SS97 "How To Talk To Your Teen", SS98 "Black Palms", AW98 "Radioactivity", SS99 "Kinetic Youth", AW99 "Disorder, Incubation, Isolation", SS00 "Summa Cum Laude", AW00 “Confusion”, AW01 "Riot! Riot! Riot!", SS02 "Woe Onto Those", AW02 "Virginia Creeper", SS03 "Consumed", AW03 "Closer", SS04 "May The Circle Be Unbroken", AW04 "Waves", SS05 "History of The World", AW05 "History Of My World", SS06 "Icarus Surgit", AW06 "La Defence", SS08, AW08 "Burlap", SS09 "Black and White", SS10 "Snake", AW10 "Velcro", AW11 "Houtje Towtje", AW12 "Run Fall Run", AW14 "Sterling Ruby", AW15 "To The Archives", SS16 "Isolated Heroes", AW16 "Nightmares and Dreams", AW17 "Walk With Me", SS18 "Replicants", AW18 "Youth In Motion", SS19, AW19 "Burning Down The House", SS20, AW20 "Solar Youth", SS21 "Teenage Dreams", AW21 "Ataraxia", SS22, AW22, SS23 "Corps, Coda".
WHERE TO BUY RAF SIMONS
Raf Simons, since the brand's discontinuing, is becoming increasingly rare and hard to find. We recommend Grailed.
HOW TO AUTHENTICATE RAF SIMONS
Raf Simons, due to the enduring popularity of the brand, is widely counterfeited and to be sure on the authenticity of Raf Simons, we would recommend using a service like LegitGrails who specialise in Raf Simons authentication.