Raf Simons' electric dreams for the FW21 collection "Ideas that are unconnected can come together and find a synergy, a calm"

Yesterday Raf Simons' fashion show for the FW21 collection took place. Once again digital fashion show, once again a co-ed show. The show was filmed at the Barenzaal in Genk, a former coal mine filled with ancient machinery halfway between the set of Metropolis and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was a special fashion show: Simons has in fact revisited the great classics of his own design (oversize, deconstruction, polo collars, single earrings etc.) but with a new creative calm – the result is perhaps simons' most balanced collection so far, in which graphics and appliques are abandoned and an approach to design that is cerebral on the one hand, with its thousand details of construction and reconstruction, and extremely tactile on the other. The focus of the collection was certainly the volumes communicated through layering and work on outerwear – with a new (and almost surprising (a category not explored before) represented by oversized quilted vests. 

The latest consideration goes to the materials used. Even before he was a powerhouse of cultural references, Simons was a manipulator and a subject technician. The construction and work on fabrics are always at the centre of his shows and here they took the place they deserved in the spotlight: in this sense, the most emblematic look is the seventeenth, a sort of cloak in very soft fleece combined with a pair of oversized pink trousers (Simons spoke of oversized as a way to make clothes overcome the concept of gender) with black shoes. But the sweaters-tunics with inlays of other patterns and the very particular white oversized shirt that appeared at the end of the show (which combines a normal-sized collar with a rather theatrical construction and drapery) are all testimonies of subtle and completely ingenious work.