Raf Simons S/S 1998 - Black Palms

[adrienpegon]

source: http://in-the-name-of-raf.tumblr.com/

It's funny to see how raw and avantgarde this collection was. He revived the skinny suit, and turned basic, almost unwearable clothes into desirable products, and it was just one of his first collections.

 

[adrienpegon]

if the embedded video in my previous post doesnt work here is the vimeo link and the youtube link

source : tumblr

source : https://historyofourworld.files.wordpress.com/

source : raf-goals.tumblr

source : http://www.anothermag.com/

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

Makes me want to get a time machine :/

 

[jescajade]

adrienpegon thanks for posting! one of my favourites! it makes you look at the current state of fashion and see how tragic it is.

 

[CrisGalaxy]

this is a cult favorite

 

[Marc10]

Thanks so much for posting the full show Adrien! I've never seen it before, love it!

This is really one of my fave Raf collections. The sense of freedom is so great. The open shirts, the loose pants, the t-shirts as body paint.... ugh so good!

 

[adrienpegon]

Makes me want to get a time machine :/

adrienpegon thanks for posting! one of my favourites! it makes you look at the current state of fashion and see how tragic it is.

Glad you liked it ! Indeed, I was not even born when he introduced SS98 but I miss those times where fashion was only about expressing and conveying messages, and not only making money... Only a few designers still follow that pure idea of fashion...

Thanks so much for posting the full show Adrien! I've never seen it before, love it!

This is really one of my fave Raf collections. The sense of freedom is so great. The open shirts, the loose pants, the t-shirts as body paint.... ugh so good!

Your welcome, I discovered it yesterday aha ! Yeah, it was a deep collection, very inspiring and still almost actual ! i felt in love with the long black coat and the white leather jacket <333

 

[BerlinRocks]

Glad you liked it ! Indeed, I was not even born when he introduced SS98 (...)

well thank you for the video anyway !

 

[DsgnaWW1]

source: http://in-the-name-of-raf.tumblr.com/

It's funny to see how raw and avantgarde this collection was. He revived the skinny suit, and turned basic, almost unwearable clothes into desirable products, and it was just one of his first collections.

Our growing up styles.

Crazy how we were imitated, then erased.

 

[avonlea002]

I will never understand his phenomenon and how he managed to get all these jobs later. One of the most overrated designers in history.

 

[MulletProof]

^ it’s context and how ‘alternative’ it looked in comparison to what was mainstream at the time. He was also highly independent for a good number of years.. most can’t even remember what that means anymore (independent these days kind of just means hanging in the waiting room of a big house..). I still remember the excitement and concern over him his move to Jil Sander.. he was extremely qualified in some aspects but not fully qualified, certainly not in womenswear, as ideally you should to land any job, and unfortunately, as the corporate responsibilities increased, he relied more and more precisely on the weaknesses that you can nurture and overcome only with your own rhythm, which was never going to happen at Dior or CK.. or Prada for that matter.

Hedi would probably freak out at that back shot with the palm trees doing the rounds on the internet lol, he’s tried to make that his thing for years now..

 

[runner]

raf is what takeji hirakawa calls "fashion DJ director" type. he needs references and cool friends/partners he hangs with and draws inspirations and can sample from.
it was great in its own way during a decade from the mid 90's, and he definitely represented sign of the times.

but, when he does certain kind of brand, it's like a DJ suddenly into an orchestra conductor directing a symphony.
it can easily end up showing his merely gathering information instead of creating another world of mode.
so, sometimes looks like one night cramming for the exam is obvious. he sometimes looks to me brave, reckless, or too ambitious.
it's grace that is most questioned there.

on the other hand, this is also the era valentino had leaned a lot from jun who can be called a DJ as well.

 

[MulletProof]

from jun who can be called a DJ as well.

😭 not jun, why? seasonal volatility?

 

[runner]

😭 not jun, why? seasonal volatility?

the reason I write "as well" is part of jun is still a DJ. for example the way jun used cindy sherman is not that different from the way raf used david bowie. though jun did it with much more elaboration. and the way rei used cindy was very different from jun's way.

to make sure, I don't look down on DJ's, well real ones. an orchestra conductor suddenly turning into a DJ would get lots of lighters thrown at them.

btw the one who first used the term "fashion DJ" is probably yohji.

seasonal volatility is one of jun's most attractive features to me.

the interview in the link below is from years ago. some things have changed.
now take (the man) values the designer behind number(n)ine. since that designer too has changed, growing.

https://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums/forum/forums/fashion-media/3558-an-interview-with-japanese-fashion-critic-takeji-hirakawa-mekas

lastly, if there is any big difference between raf and jun, jun got to have a very precious master-pupil relation when he was a student (who was often absent from that school ). the master was not someone who teaches at school but a punk as well as a collector of chanel. she provided support and playgrounds for those kids. and jun was allowed to play with her chanel, to rip, cut, prise it open. like baudelaire's first metaphysical stirring of children who want to get at and see the soul of their toys.
then jun might have got something essential, through experience instead of knowledge.

mentor and her work


fashionsnap

 

[runner]

vogue

 

[runner]

vogue

 

[runner]

vogue

 

[runner]

"don't be afraid. just steal it! the world is a plethora of meterial lying about anywhere around you and waiting to be sampled, cut up, endlessly remixed."
from simulationism / noi sawaragi

what raf did here was presenting various deja vu's in a materialist way, towards dystopian utopia.
one of the dejavus included even recent helmut lang (as well as veronique branquinho). RS was looking somehow like boy sized HL from the very first collection, or flat HL.
in a way, "black palms" was balearic. in another way, it was the christian lassen of fashion. in the sense that it could be banal at one glance but be stuck in your head.
but raf was to prove himself more than lassen, after this, before long.



fashiontsushin