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Kanye West's Creative Director Virgil Abloh on His Obsession With the Work of Raf Simons
For Virgil Abloh, Raf Simons’s designs have a mythical quality. His obsession started over a decade ago, when he spotted the work of the celebrated Belgium designer in a Japanese magazine. The clothes were forward thinking in a way that stood out against the spiffy sartorial stylings of menswear at the time, and sparked a fascination that has stayed with Abloh through his career at Kanye West’s DONDA, a creative agency, and designer of Off-White, his line of elevated streetwear. And he’s not the only one—in fact there is a growing community of Raf superfans who stalk eBay and Japanese proxy sites obsessively waiting for archival clothes to appear. Tonight, Raf Simons will receive the International Award at the CFDA Awards in New York, so who better to speak on the designer’s global influence than a die-hard collector like Abloh? Here, the 33-year-old Chicago native talks about the story behind his personal Raf Simons archive, and the lengths that collectors like him will go to to acquire the rarest fashion finds.
When did you first hear of Raf Simons?
I’m 33 now, so I’ve been studying Raf’s work for probably ten years. I think what drew me to his work was his intellectualized view of current culture. His approach is so reality-based. His early work is social commentary on being young, and that approach to fashion resonates with me the most. So, the 2003 collection is burned in my mind—and it’s burned a hole in my pocketbook. I’ve tried to find those pieces again after seeing early imagery. That’s been my hallmark Raf moment.
When did you first hear of Raf Simons?
I’m 33 now, so I’ve been studying Raf’s work for probably ten years. I think what drew me to his work was his intellectualized view of current culture. His approach is so reality-based. His early work is social commentary on being young, and that approach to fashion resonates with me the most. So, the 2003 collection is burned in my mind—and it’s burned a hole in my pocketbook. I’ve tried to find those pieces again after seeing early imagery. That’s been my hallmark Raf moment.
Photo: Courtesy of FirstView (2)
When you starting collecting, runway images and fashion lookbooks weren’t as readily available online as they are now. How did you keep track of his work back then?
I’ve been traveling to Japan for quite some time. They had Bible-like periodicals, and you could see collections and flat images of garments. When the Internet came into play, I went back and tried to find old pictures and editorials. I’ve tried to find every image I could. Fortunately in my design career I’ve gotten to meet Raf a number of times, at a birthday party or two, so being closer to that source of inspiration has been crazy rewarding.
Do you look on eBay? How do you find them or hunt them down?
There’s a culture of kids like me who are searching after old Raf pieces. It’s a smorgasbord. You have personal conversations with people close to him to find out about archive sales. They happen once a year or so. I’ve befriended the woman who runs those. And then, there have been samples that were loaned out and never returned. So you hear about these mysterious pieces that Raf doesn’t even have! I have an eBay alert on my phone for Raf pieces. And then there are Japanese proxy sites where I’ve gotten most of my key finds.
I’ve been traveling to Japan for quite some time. They had Bible-like periodicals, and you could see collections and flat images of garments. When the Internet came into play, I went back and tried to find old pictures and editorials. I’ve tried to find every image I could. Fortunately in my design career I’ve gotten to meet Raf a number of times, at a birthday party or two, so being closer to that source of inspiration has been crazy rewarding.
Do you look on eBay? How do you find them or hunt them down?
There’s a culture of kids like me who are searching after old Raf pieces. It’s a smorgasbord. You have personal conversations with people close to him to find out about archive sales. They happen once a year or so. I’ve befriended the woman who runs those. And then, there have been samples that were loaned out and never returned. So you hear about these mysterious pieces that Raf doesn’t even have! I have an eBay alert on my phone for Raf pieces. And then there are Japanese proxy sites where I’ve gotten most of my key finds.
Photo: Catwalking/Getty Images (2)
What are your top three pieces you’ve collected?
I have a fishtail parka from 2003 that was part of the Closer collection, which Peter Savilledid all of the graphics for. There’s a series of fishtail parkas in that, but there’s one that stands out, and that’s the one I found on a Japanese auction site. It’s this multicolored statue image with the Joy Division album artwork underneath it. I’d been seeing it online for so long. This piece is actually handmade. It was hand drawn. So that’s a very special piece to me. I feel like that 2003 collection is how people dress now! It’s graphics, it’s men’s silhouettes, but it has an edge to it. The Jil Sander collections are important to me as well. The marble print in the men’s collection—I want to say it was 2008 or so, too—but that is cool to see. When he did that marble print at Jil, it was graphic like his early work, but still tasteful, still very Jil Sander. I would even go all the way up to his most recent men’s collection. Being an avid Raf collector, anyone who has been collecting for a long time, his last collection with Sterling Ruby, you could see it when it came down the runway—I was there—it was the first time he had gone back to a 2003 feel. I heard from Raf’s team it was the first time he went back to his old collections. And Sterling looked at it. So it was the first time Raf referenced himself. Sterling painted this huge canvas, and they cut it up and made it into five jackets, and I bought all of them! So it has a special tag and you had to be selected.
I have a fishtail parka from 2003 that was part of the Closer collection, which Peter Savilledid all of the graphics for. There’s a series of fishtail parkas in that, but there’s one that stands out, and that’s the one I found on a Japanese auction site. It’s this multicolored statue image with the Joy Division album artwork underneath it. I’d been seeing it online for so long. This piece is actually handmade. It was hand drawn. So that’s a very special piece to me. I feel like that 2003 collection is how people dress now! It’s graphics, it’s men’s silhouettes, but it has an edge to it. The Jil Sander collections are important to me as well. The marble print in the men’s collection—I want to say it was 2008 or so, too—but that is cool to see. When he did that marble print at Jil, it was graphic like his early work, but still tasteful, still very Jil Sander. I would even go all the way up to his most recent men’s collection. Being an avid Raf collector, anyone who has been collecting for a long time, his last collection with Sterling Ruby, you could see it when it came down the runway—I was there—it was the first time he had gone back to a 2003 feel. I heard from Raf’s team it was the first time he went back to his old collections. And Sterling looked at it. So it was the first time Raf referenced himself. Sterling painted this huge canvas, and they cut it up and made it into five jackets, and I bought all of them! So it has a special tag and you had to be selected.
Photo: Courtesy of Jil Sander (2)
What is it about it about his work that is so special to you?
There’s a zeitgeist, right? There’s culture, there’s trends, and it can be superficial in a way. Like, "Oh, this print is in." Or, you can take an approach to the art of fashion and tie it into the culture, music, and the real artistry of the time. Raf is connected to all of that, but his outlet is fashion. He’s kind of like a sponge for more than just the surface of fashion. I think that’s why he’s getting this award! It effortlessly comes out in his work. I think that, in terms of designers and their mission statements, that’s what resonates with me the most. That’s a good benchmark for all designers: to embody more than an aesthetic. It captures what the world was like at the time. I take that as inspiration in designing my own collection.
What’s the craziest story you’ve heard about someone acquiring a Raf piece?
It’s one of these undercurrents in fashion. I have a friend—this young kid named Ian Connor—he was at South by Southwest, and he was getting into a bar, and he saw a young kid wearing a piece from 2003. So he took the kid and was like, "We’re going to the ATM." And he took out a bunch of money and just gave him money on the street to get that shirt. That embodies how, when you see a piece, you’ll do whatever it takes to go after it. I’m maybe 80 pieces deep with archive work, but they’re all very special pieces. They’re works of art to me.
There’s a zeitgeist, right? There’s culture, there’s trends, and it can be superficial in a way. Like, "Oh, this print is in." Or, you can take an approach to the art of fashion and tie it into the culture, music, and the real artistry of the time. Raf is connected to all of that, but his outlet is fashion. He’s kind of like a sponge for more than just the surface of fashion. I think that’s why he’s getting this award! It effortlessly comes out in his work. I think that, in terms of designers and their mission statements, that’s what resonates with me the most. That’s a good benchmark for all designers: to embody more than an aesthetic. It captures what the world was like at the time. I take that as inspiration in designing my own collection.
What’s the craziest story you’ve heard about someone acquiring a Raf piece?
It’s one of these undercurrents in fashion. I have a friend—this young kid named Ian Connor—he was at South by Southwest, and he was getting into a bar, and he saw a young kid wearing a piece from 2003. So he took the kid and was like, "We’re going to the ATM." And he took out a bunch of money and just gave him money on the street to get that shirt. That embodies how, when you see a piece, you’ll do whatever it takes to go after it. I’m maybe 80 pieces deep with archive work, but they’re all very special pieces. They’re works of art to me.
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