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  • malevich
    Member
    • Jun 2012
    • 54

    /\ Well maybe these are not insults but definitely a very harsh criticism with insulting flavor (for some definitely) and they do not have a very professional attitude, they are very personal and very self-defending.

    First of all declaring that Galliano is irrelevant today. It is a very relative statement, for "cannot fit in my apartment cuz its too small and too expensive" Paris or NYC, yes probably, but for the "throwing money away on bullshit" Arabic and Russian cultures there is nothing more relevant than Galliano's vision. So basicly he insults the tastes and cultures (cannot really blame Raf Simons, but still) of eastern women, probably the major consumers of the house of Dior and maybe even the elderly upper east side ladies' too. For Haute Couture shows, yes they are theatrical and over the top, agreed, but PaP shows did satisfy the demand of a major Dior customer, secondly Diors business is in accessories and all the other fashion entourage anyways and you have to sell that shit with something overthetop presentations otherwise their real value falls to zero, we all know that. So i personally do not see a reason or any distinctive explanation to state that Galliano is irrelevant. He might be boring for fashion-savvy crowd, particularly the last seasons (since his major assistant / "doing the whole job" real galliano guy / the idea generator Steven Robinson died of an overdose and the WHOLE galliano team was dismissed or left somewhere around 2008, i guess, but that is another story) but Dior customer is NOT A FASHION-SAVVY AND AVANT-GARDE PRAISING CROWD and they do expect theatrical stunts. And on the other hand who would do such inspiring fantasy-like theatrical shows today if not DIOR?? (back to the fashion stagnation topic)
    But if we neglect the shows and speak about retail, the whole atmosphere of the stores and the corners is sooo bourgeois with elements of french baroque (obviously modernized) that galliano designed products fit in perfectly there, and it is Christian Dior himself who envisioned stores aesthetics that way. While Raf's designs would fit much better in Dior Homme stores, but there is no space for Christian Dior's admiration of flowers and wintergardens and monarchy inspired moods there. So if we speak about the wide retail picture then Galliano products are very relevant to CD stores and bourgeois message they try to communicate.

    That leads to Raf's second statement that really caught my ears, that Christian Dior himself wont be satisfied with Gallianos vision for Dior? That is just WTF!! i mean galliano is boring today and irrelevant that is discussed and let's say agreed. But that is definitely a personal insult to the work of person who spent 15 years of hard work and acclaimed for it world-wide. And who did CD dress back in the days? Monarchs, Famous Rich French People, Actresses, well not much changed since then today and Galliano fulfilled his role with decent profits. And definitely respecting the codes and dreams of Christian Dior. And Raf's intentions of bringing Dior to the masses is very weird, it is profitable anyways and the only way bringing it to masses would be making an H&M out of it. I mean Dior has a Huge atelier with great specialists and Know-How which HAS TO BE EXPLOITED, and what Raf intends to do (and already did in previous seasons) can all be done with outsourcing for 5 times cheaper. Which i think is a huge waste and needs loads of reconsidering. So that is a thought regarding the CD not being satisfied of Galliano bringing on CD's legacy and handwork, labour intensive fashion.

    Thirdly we have Raf Simons declaring that he wants to create a Dior woman since he doesnot feel it as much as it is present in Chanel. Well there is a Dior woman, again in Arabic and Nouveau-Riche Russian cultures, secondly, well good luck with that... Because so far i sensed YSL inspiration more present in Raf's work than a CD inspiration and unless he puts women in "below the knee" skirts we wont sense any Dior Dior in his work, and the skirts he presented so far are not that very wearable either and a very very theatrical indeed (not galliano theatrical obviously, but still no space in a sane woman's wardrobe)

    And the last but not least is Raf Simon's statement about the fashion crowd who misses fantasy in fashion and does expect at least something from Dior. You cannot say like.. oh what do you know, you kids, what i am showing is good, what you are expecting is bad. I am sure he is getting some criticism from the established Dior customer but you cannot attack back the customer with a criticism that what do you know about fashion kind of statements.

    So somehow this speeches of his are weird and unexpected, i mean we had Raf, who was quiet and humble and did great job with colours and elegant cuts (unfortunately cannot say much positive about jil sander's profitability in business terms), and now he got this amazing opportunity to exploit the hand work savvy old atelier people of Dior and maybe bring his work to another level, but so far i saw 2 collections with so so reviews which definitely did not exploit any real potential of the house of Dior, and so many negatively oriented statements of his, which are most likely driven by self-defense. And mocking his predecessor does not give him much credit either, since it is already about 2 years we are not mentioning galliano's work, now the work of Raf's should speak for itself and so far it is still missing a lot of point.

    I think the problem with Dior or any other important fashion house is that you have to adapt to the rules of Dior FISRT and in a way forget about personal ambition and then slowly adapt personal codes and personal intentions gradually, being sure that the ground is not shakey.. He just got Dior and he is speaking about changing the Dior woman, it will take him at least 10 years to do soo, but you never know what can happen to you in 10 years time, and LVMH bosses are not likely to play around (again see gallianos sad departure), so i think it is a pity in general. He should be brave and strong and show everyone that he CAN, but punching those who already fell is like lame, let galliano be, man, get over it you are in his seat already.

    I am glad that Raf Simons after his hard work finally got his position at one of the highest helms within fashion industry, I just think that he speaks tooo much about things that in many way contradict with the DIOR customer base and so far his results are killing the Dior Atelier potential. He definitely needs to reconsider because if his up coming collection will be as simple as the previous ones Dior as a brand will start loosing credit and will be way too expensive for its production value and overall fashion input.
    Last edited by malevich; 12-17-2012, 01:05 PM.

    Comment

    • Faust
      kitsch killer
      • Sep 2006
      • 37852

      Read the interview. I can help you out, Raf - Chanel woman is the same as Dior woman - rich husband and bourgeois taste. Enjoy your new job.
      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

      Comment

      • Voidoid
        Junior Member
        • Feb 2012
        • 13

        Found some videos from old collections
        Spring/Summer 98
        This is "Raf Simons: Black Palms (Spring/Summer 1998)" by Victor Soto on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

        Autumn/Winter 99-00

        Autumn/Winter 00-01
        This is "Raf Simons fall/winter 2000 "Confusion" video by fashiontv" by t3sjelly on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who…

        Comment

        • julian_doe
          Senior Member
          • Mar 2013
          • 339

          Originally posted by Voidoid View Post
          Found some videos from old collections
          Spring/Summer 98
          This is "Raf Simons: Black Palms (Spring/Summer 1998)" by Victor Soto on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

          Autumn/Winter 99-00

          Autumn/Winter 00-01
          http://vimeo.com/57030541
          Thanks for posting these, Voidoid.

          I was a devoted admirer of the creations for Raf Simons all the way up to F/W2007. Ever since, I can only point out two or three looks off of each runway show which I think are cool. F/W 20013, in my opinion, is horrible in it's entirety.

          However, I can respect Raf Simons for continuing to be a progressive designer who likes to try new things.

          Comment

          • interest1
            Senior Member
            • Nov 2008
            • 3351

            my bauhaus is better than your bauhaus

            .
            sain't
            .

            Comment

            • qviiist
              Junior Member
              • Jan 2014
              • 1

              Originally posted by Voidoid View Post
              Found some videos from old collections
              Spring/Summer 98
              This is "Raf Simons: Black Palms (Spring/Summer 1998)" by Victor Soto on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

              Autumn/Winter 99-00

              Autumn/Winter 00-01
              http://vimeo.com/57030541
              A/W 2000-01 has to be one of my favorite collections of his.
              Using Green Velvet in the video was also amazing

              Comment

              • michael_kard
                Senior Member
                • Oct 2010
                • 2152

                Does anyone have an idea of what this poster from 'Radioactivity' depicts? Thanks
                ENDYMA / Archival fashion & Consignment
                Helmut Lang 1986-2005 | Ann Demeulemeester | Raf Simons | Burberry Prorsum | and more...

                Comment

                • Faust
                  kitsch killer
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 37852

                  /\ link is broken, methinks.
                  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                  StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                  Comment

                  • michael_kard
                    Senior Member
                    • Oct 2010
                    • 2152

                    My apologies, it is this one:

                    ENDYMA / Archival fashion & Consignment
                    Helmut Lang 1986-2005 | Ann Demeulemeester | Raf Simons | Burberry Prorsum | and more...

                    Comment

                    • malevich
                      Member
                      • Jun 2012
                      • 54

                      Raf Simons by Tim Blanks interview: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/raf-simons#

                      I like how he speaks about one of the highest fashion design achievement jobs in industry as if he was a simple secretary there - arrive-do the job-leave, nothing special nothing to stress about, just loads of work.

                      Comment

                      • 550BC
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2013
                        • 783

                        I forgot the gallery their name etc. but there was a video display/exhibition of Raf Simons his legendary collections including S/S 2002 'Woe onto those who spit on the fear generation…The wind will blow it back.' ..I will dig into it for people who are interested seeing it, it was recently in Amsterdam I heard.
                        a fish out of water dies

                        Comment

                        • Faust
                          kitsch killer
                          • Sep 2006
                          • 37852

                          If any of you are interested (I am not), they made a documentary, Dior and I, about Raf's making of the first Dior haute couture collection.
                          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                          Comment

                          • Faust
                            kitsch killer
                            • Sep 2006
                            • 37852

                            Raf Simons article in the Independent.

                            Not a bad read, and anything by Alex Fury is worth reading, but note how Fury, rightfully noting Simons's influence on menswear, stops at 2003 and carefully skirts Raf's uninspiring recent years.
                            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                            Comment

                            • Landadel
                              Banned
                              • Jul 2014
                              • 74

                              Looks like the next issue of 032C will be interesting for Raf fans.

                              Comment

                              • advanced
                                Junior Member
                                • Oct 2013
                                • 2

                                Was anyone able to acquire the 032c Magazine? Worth the purchase?

                                Comment

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