Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery Presents: Raf Simons 1995-2005

[softgrey]

FONDAZIONE PITTI IMMAGINE DISCOVERY PRESENTS:
RAF SIMONS 1995-2005
June 24, 2005 _ from 7:00 pm Florence, Giardino dei Boboli
1995-2005: ten years on a project of Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery
*****

On the occasion of Pitti Immagine Uomo n. 68, the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery is proud to celebrate in Florence the tenth anniversary of Raf Simons’ career – one of the innovators in contemporary menswear. His clothing collections, that debuted in the mid-nineties were defined by a narrow, linear cut. Shown on adolescents, rather than professional models they combined sartorial traditions with the “uniforms” of rebellious youths and marked a major turning point in the redefinition of men’s clothing.
For Raf Simons art, music, performance and photography are important parts of his esthetic statement (together with Francesco Bonami he curated the Fondazione Discovery exhibition The Fourth Sex. Adolescent extremes, in 2003) and so, he decided to present a spectacular, three-part event in one of the most fabulous places in Florence – the Boboli Gardens – to tell his story.
In this enormous green space the designer will create an original itinerary that will take visitors to areas that have never been used before. Through a series of stations and different mediums he will illustrate his ten, straight years of work 1995-2005. Not a nostalgic look at the past, but rather a grasp of a story that continues to fuel the present and future.
The first stop will be the newly restored Limonaia by Zanobi del Rosso ( a glasshouse of the 18th century). The 150 meter long lemon house will host a multiple video-installation, featuring images especially created for this event and showing all facets of his visual lexicon _ Raf Simons Repeat.
The next will be the Prato dei Castagni (The Chestnut Lawn) dominated by a huge head created by the sculptor Igor Mitoraj, with a visual presentation of the first monograph dedicated to Raf Simons. Through images and text the book covers his entire, complex and fascinating career _ Raf Simons Redux.
The third, and culminating stage will be the natural amphitheater of the Neptune Fountain. This magical area with its metaphysical echoes will be the setting for the fashion show (to be held only in Florence) featuring the Raf Simons 2006 Spring-Summer collection _ Raf Simons S/S 2006.
With the patronage Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti
RAF SIMONS 1995-2005
June 24, 2005
Florence, Giardino di Boboli

-‘Raf Simons Repeat’ / video-installation
by Peter De Potter & Raf Simons
the Zanobi del Rosso Limonaia
24 June - 7:00 p.m.
Opening open to the public June 25 – July 8, 2005

-‘Raf Simons Redux’ / monograph
by Peter De Potter & Raf Simons
published by Charta and Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery
Prato dei Castagni (The Chestnut Lawn)
24 June - 8:30 p.m.

- Raf Simons / 2006 Spring-Summer collection
Giardino della Vasca del Nettuno (Neptune Fountain Garden)
24 June - 9:30 p.m.


from http://www.pittimmagine.com/

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[metal-on-metal]

Oh so he's showing in Florence this season! Heard about this retrospective months ago but no one had any information until now. Thanks for this, softgrey!

 

[softgrey]

no problem m-o-m...
hope we can find some images after the fact...
sounds interesting...

like a career overview...almost like a 3D action resume...

 

[faust]

I read in i-D today that there will be a book coming out of this. There is also a 2 page interview with Raf.

 

[softgrey]

that's a good idea....
thanks for the info faust...

 

[metal-on-metal]

Book is coming out in September from Charta/Fondazione Pitti Immagine. $40/128 pages in color. Looks good!

 

[faust]

From IHT, an article by Suzy and a slideshow with one of the rare images of Raf himself.

http://www.iht.com/pages/style/index.php

 

[Mutterlein]

whoa, so that is what he looke like.

 

[Mutterlein]

looks like*

 

[Lena]

excellent Suzy Menkes article thanks for the link faust, here posting some extracts & pics from International Herald Tribune

Simons also had as a supporter Linda Loppa, the fashion head of Antwerp's Royal Academy. She discouraged him from joining the fashion faculty and instead recommended training with her tailor father. The late Renzo Loppa - one of the unsung heroes in Antwerp's fashion story - blended Italian flair with fine technique, working as tailor to wealthy diamond merchants. From him, Loppa says, Simons learned "the balance of a jacket," meaning its shoulder line and pockets, and how to give it a "three-dimensional quality."

"The industrial, technical side of the thing interested me less and less," Simons admitted about his graduate program to Veerle Windels, author of "Young Belgium Fashion Design." But his college training was converted into clothing technique.

"I am obsessed by tailoring - very strong, linear clothes," Simons said in 1998, when he was 30. "I ask myself how I can bring that to young people - to a 14-year-old who you never see in a suit. Is it possible to bring to them how I feel about cutting?"

Simons described his tailoring as "very Bauhaus, very clean and a very sharp way of cutting, especially for the pants."

What were the roots of Simons's inspirations?
Sonia Noël of the avant-garde Stijl store in Brussels remembers Simons hero-worshipping Helmut Lang and begging her to take him to the designer's shows.
...
What does Simons feel about the awesome task? On the eve of the announcement he said, "To me, Jil was always someone I respected very much. The name represents something that no other brand has: the ultimate minimalism, not to do what is not necessary. I find that so beautiful."
That was after a year's time out for reflection and the rebel yell comeback collections in 2001. One was held on a skeleton of scaffolding with figures muffled in balaclavas and hoods wearing radical, politicized slogans such as "Kollapse" or "Everything belongs to us because we are excited, insecure, apprehensive, angry." Another, staged in a schoolyard, featured "sheltering" layers and terrorist headgear, although Simons insisted, "They are not terrorists - the are fighters for independence and freedom."

 

[kit]

Many thanks , Lena .

I wish I could be there , ( but we may get a personal report from Sean . ) .

I'll wait and see .

 

[Lena]

he's off to milano in a few hours

 

[kit]

Many thanks , Lena .

I wish I could be there , ( but we may get a personal report from Sean . ) .

I'll wait and see .

oomarhatelier says it's NOT a long journey from Milani to Firenze , ( or was it Rome to Firenze ? ) .

BUT knowing Sean , he'll probably be able to grab a lift in Raf's car from Milano to the exhibition , stranger things have happened at sea .

Anyways , I think it's time for bed .............!!!!!!

 

[nqth]

Many thanks for the thread and the article:-)

 

[faust]

you are welcome, everyone. sorry about not posting the article here, Lena - I was pressed for time.

 

[softgrey]

you're welcome nqth...

 

[Lena]

no problems faust, you brought us the link anyway, thanks again

 

[nqth]

From hint mag

Raf and Ready

Though gearing up for his new high-profile role of creative director at Jil Sander, Raf Simons is famously press-shy, like many a Belgian designer, preferring to communicate with the public through his men's collections and their associated images of young, street-plucked models with stoic gazes, graphic 80's album covers and videos portraying adolescent detachment. But it would be a mistake to label him a monger of teen angst. There is a lighter, optimistic side to Simons that lies at the heart of his work, a kind of intimate idealism, as he suggests in the foreword to his new book, Redux: "Raf Simons, as the world knows the label, is not me. Or better: not only me. It has always been, and will always continue to be, about us, about we, about you. This book is the beginning of another cycle, of the future. And the future is us, we, you." The monograph, Simons's first, was recently exhibited at Pitti Uomo, the biannual men's fashion fair in Florence, in commemoration of his first decade in business, along with a video installation of his most defining imagery and, held outdoors, the only showing of his spring '06 collection. Here, a slideshow of these three landmark events.