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Raf Simons: A Versace Possible?
Published: TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1998
MILAN: Six months after the killing of Gianni Versace, his sister Donatella has approached Raf Simons, 29, a hip Belgian menswear designer who is one of fashion's rising stars.
According to sources in Belgium, a deal for Simons to contribute his edgy tailoring to the Versace design studio could be struck by the end of the month, after the designer presents his menswear show in Paris on Jan. 23. But a spokesman for Versace said that such speculation was unfounded.
Contacted at his Antwerp studio on Monday, Simons said that discussing an appointment was premature, that the idea of working with Versace "interested him a lot," but that it was too early to say when and if plans would be concretized or even which of the several Versace menswear lines was under discussion.
Although Simons's provocative look, with sly references to punk and to classic English schoolboy uniforms, might seem too downtown for the glam-rock Versace label, it could be a smart move to tap a designer who would reflect the style of a coming generation.
Simons is also a sensitive and sophisticated tailor who cuts "the perfect modern pants," according to the designer boutique-owner Maria Luisa Poumaillou, whose new Paris men's store will focus on his line.
The Belgian designer is not one of Antwerp's fashion college graduates who have become a design force in the 1990s. He studied industrial design and graduated in furniture, which brought him into contact with Belgian fashion's Walter Van Bierendonck.
Simons, who says he has "a lot of respect for traditional clothing," approached a revered Antwerp tailor and learned from him how to cut a silhouette close to a slight boyish frame, rather than to the bold, muscly body shape more typical of 1980s menswear, when Versace made a broad-shouldered impact.
Starting in a small way three years ago, Simons set up and financed his own company, which he says he wants to keep whatever the outcome of negotiations in Italy.
"The most important thing for me is that I keep the possibility to do my own thing as it is at the moment," Simons said. "It is also important for me that there is a certain kind of luxury in the technical things."
Versace's current menswear is produced by Donatella Versace and her husband, Paul Beck, working with a team of designers.
A source in Antwerp suggests that Simons and fellow Belgian women's wear designer Veronique Branquinho could have been approached jointly, but there seems no evidence for this.
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