Raf Simons: fashion designer announced he’s closing his doors after 27 years as speculation mounts on reasons why

Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons has announced that he will be closing the fashion brand after 27 years. The designer, who most recently had a runway show for the brand’s spring/summer 2023 collection shown in October in London, announced that season will be the last for him.

Simons, 54, made the brief announcement on his Instagram account on Monday, simply writing “I lack the words to share how proud I am of all that we have achieved. Thank you all, for believing in our vision and for believing in me.” Simons is one of a number of high-fashion designers that have decided to call it quits after Zac Posen in 2019 and Sies Marjan in 2020.

Though both Posen and Marjan have confirmed that the economy and COVID-19 were fiscal reasons why they would close up shop, the same cannot be said for Raf Simons. Speculation has arisen that the turbulent financial market the fashion industry faces could be the reason, others believe that Simons’ may wish to concentrate on his other fashion role.

In 2020, Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the creative director and chief executive of the Prada Group, announced Simons’s appointment as co-creative director of Prada. Speculation from fashion insiders believe that Simons is now wishing to focus all of his efforts on the Italian fashion house, especially when Prada confirmed that Simons would have “equal responsibilities for creative input and decision making.”

That led to further discussion that perhaps the 73 year old Miuccia Prada might be readying themselves for retirement and start handing the reins of the fashion empire over to Simons, though at the time of the announcement Prada vehemently denied such speculation.

Raf Simons was launched 1995 and celebrated youth culture, focusing on minimalist silhouettes such as skinny tailoring. He was viewed as somewhat of an iconoclast when making his London Fashion Week debut under the brand with his decision to cast real people as runway models - something unheard of at the time.

Simons has held roles at Jil Sander, Dior and Calvin Klein before taking on his current role at Prada. For his final show, Simons invited more than 1,000 guests including fashion students to the clubbing venue Printworks in south-east London.