Raf Simons is leaving his role as artistic director of women’s
haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessory collections at DIOR, the French luxury fashion house announced last Thursday. According to Dior, Simons
“reached this decision for personal
reasons.” The designer’s
Spring/Summer 2016 collection, presented in
Paris last month, was his last for Dior and marks the end of his
three-and-a-half year tenure at the house. Simons’ successor has yet to
be identified, but the search for a replacement has begun, according to
market sources.
“It is after careful and long consideration that I have decided to
leave my position as creative director of Christian Dior’s women’s
collection,” Simons said in a one-page statement released by the
company. “It is a decision based entirely and equally on my desire to
focus on other interests in my life, including my own brand, and the
passions that drive me outside my work.”
Those interests include Simons’ eponymous fashion house, which is
expected to continue showing its collections in Paris. Simons, 47, made
the decision to leave Dior after he and the company failed to reach an
agreement on a new employment contract, though the parting was amicable,
according to sources.
Simons’ statement continued:
“Christian Dior is an extraordinary
company, and it has been an immense privilege to write a few pages of
this magnificent book. I want to thank Mr. Bernard Arnault
for the trust he has put in me, giving me the incredible opportunity to
work at this beautiful house surrounded by the most amazing team one
could ever dream of. I have also had the chance over the last few years
to benefit from the leadership of Sidney Toledano.
His thoughtful, heartfelt and inspired management will also remain as
one of the most important experiences of my professional career.”
Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
and Christian Dior SA, and Sidney Toledano, chief executive officer of
Christian Dior Couture,
“very warmly thank him for his exceptional
contribution to the house,” read the statement. Neither the designer or
executives at the brand made comment beyond the one-page statement,
released after close of trading on the Paris stock exchange. Simons, who joined
Dior in 2012 after a seven-year stint at minimalist fashion label
Jil Sander,
brought an intellectual, art-infused vision to the house, drawing on
his menswear roots to create modernist designs that are said to have
resonated with customers. Toledano recently told French newspaper Les
Echos that Dior Couture had seen a 60 percent growth in revenues since
2011.
This news is the second shock exit at Dior in recent years, after the designer
John Galliano
was discharged in 2011, having been filmed making anti-Semitic remarks
while inebriated in a Paris bar. The episode brought to the fore
concerns about the increasing pressure faced by those in top creative
roles at fashion’s luxury megabrands, a concern Simons seemed to share
before what was to be his last collection for Dior.
"I’m questioning a
lot,” Simons told press before the brand’s show on October 2nd. “I feel a
lot of people are questioning. We have a lot of conversation about it:
Where is it going? It’s not only the clothes. It’s the clothes, it’s
everything, the Internet.”
The departure is sure to kick-start fierce speculation about who will
be next in line to take on one of the most prestigious creative roles
in the fashion industry. As for Simons, his next move remains unknown,
though the designer may be restrained by a non-compete clause, typical
in this kind of role, that would temporarily prevent him from working
for rival companies.
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Simons, however, is a designer who likes to layer and layer his
reference points in ways that are wholly of our time; watching them
unfold as you sit through one of his shows is like scrolling through Instagram; past and future, high culture and pop culture, the
avant-garde and the street, all flowing together to bring you to only
one placethe present. For him, then, couture of today can be created
from the artful manipulation of whatever inspires him, regardless of
time or place or cultural standing.