IN MY WORDS
Chief creative officer of Calvin Klein, Raf Simons, has his say…
ON GROWING UP: I don’t have a fashion background at all. I come from a whitetrash family. My mum went out for work when she was 15; my dad went into the army when he was 17. I was playing on a farm with cows and sheep and chickens and a lot of children, and that’s it.
ON HIS INTRODUCTION TO FASHION:
I saw my first show, which was the third show for Martin Margiela, and nothing else in fashion has had such a big impact on me. It was a show where half the audience cried, including myself. I was just like, “What! This is fashion?” Only at that point did I understand what fashion could be or what it could mean to people. ON CALVIN KLEIN BY APPOINTMENT: I thought it would be more interesting to democratise the line, and to give access to everybody who might want to acquire an item, as opposed to only a famous person who walks the red carpet.
ON HIS SCHEDULE: I have a schedule every day that begins at 10 in the morning and runs through the day, and every, every minute is filled.
ON KEEPING PACE: I’m not the kind of person who likes to do things so fast. I think if I had more time, I would reject more things, and bring other ideas or concepts in. But that’s also not necessarily better. Sometimes you can work things to death when you take too much time.
ON HIS GO-TO OUTFIT: Navy trousers
— I have 30 pairs — navy crew-neck cashmere and a navy shirt. People think I’m a clochard, always wearing the same
“I don’t work at home; I rarely take work home. I have an office where I work, and the house
is another thing”
things, but I don’t want to stand there thinking in the morning, ‘Hmm, what shall
I wear?’ ON HIS ART COLLECTION: Some Sterling Ruby pieces. Cindy Sherman. Cady Noland. George Condo is in the house. Some younger artists like Sanya Kantarovsky. Anne Collier. We live with quite some stuff; I’ve always lived with quite some stuff. I like it — it’s inspiring to me, to be with other people’s creations. ON HUNTING
FOR HOMEWARE AT FLEA MARKETS: I’ve always liked it — finding pieces and bringing them back again to another context so they can live different lives.
ON TEXTING IDEAS TO HIMSELF: [It’s] so I don’t forget them. They’re always coming. It can be stupid things, like a certain button, but I’ve been doing this my whole life.