Date: born 1968

Biography: Raf Simons is one of the most directional designers working today. Since the late 1990s, his menswear has been a pitch-perfect blend of youth culture and classic menswear. Simons’ visibility and subsequent influence have risen considerably since his surprising recruitment in 2005 by the Jil Sander label. While reviewing his fall 2007 collection, Journalist Cathy Horyn noted that “a little-known Belgian designer named Raf Simons had the full attention of the fashion world. Mr. Simons's collection for Jil Sander, his third since becoming creative director eighteen months ago, was perfect. It will make everything else, I bet, seem a little contrived, a little clunky, a little silly.” Born in Belgium in 1968, Simons studied industrial design before becoming a menswear designer in 1995. Initially, he worked with Walter Van Beirendonck, and was also influenced by the work of Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier. Menswear has had an impact on Simons’s work for Jil Sander. Journalist Sarah Mower has praised his “unflinching Belgian pragmatism regarding the need for upper-echelon career clothes” as well as his “calm conceptualism.” His work has become more sculptural over time. By the spring of 2011, his Jil Sander line, with its explosive blocks of color and strong, bold silhouettes, was deemed the collection of the season, and Simons was being hailed as the progenitor of a new couture aesthetic. Simons was artistic director at Christian Dior from 2012 to 2015.