Dior without Raf Simons

Raf Simons leaved his role as artistic director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessory collections at Dior, the French luxury fashion house announced today.

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.

Dior Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2013-2014

Raf Simons: “The process never stops”

Photo by Willy Vanderperre/Art Partner

Mr. Simons, would you consider yourself someone that lives and breathes fashion?

How can I put this without being too critical? I don’t have so many things in the fashion world that interest me. It’s probably because I am so deeply into it. Often when you go very deep into something, you also discover what it’s about and you understand it better. With the art world I still have a lot of curiosity. There are a lot of things that I feel attracted to and I don’t necessarily understand them and that’s what fascinates me. In the fashion world I know a lot of the brands and the designers and you start to be more critical and you start to have a very specific point of view.

Looking Back at a Historic Paris Fashion Week

Finale at Dior Spring/Summer 2013 show | Source: Nowfashion.com

Today, Jessica Michault, editor-in-chief of Nowfashion.com, shares her thoughts on the Paris Fashion Week collections.

PARIS, France — Each season, as the international fashion flock winds its way from New York to London to Milan, there is usually a gradual yet perceptible build up of excitement for what comes last: Paris Fashion Week. After all, it’s here in the City of Light where the best and brightest designers from around the world come to show their collections. It’s here that the season’s fashion trends finally crystallise. And of course, Paris is home to the industry’s most powerful fashion houses and luxury groups.

Raf Simons, Hedi Slimane and the Tectonic Shifts of the Paris Fashion Establishment

Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane | Source: Hypebeast.com

PARIS, France — With fabled fashion innovators Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane scheduled to make their respective ready-to-wear debuts at Dior and Saint Laurent, two of French fashion’s most iconic houses, the stage is set for a historic Paris Fashion Week. And indeed, the conversation amongst editors, buyers and other industry insiders assembling here in the world’s fashion capital is charged with palpable excitement.

Meet Raf Simons, Dior’s New Artistic Director

The Belgian designer Raf Simons was named late on Monday as the next artistic director of Christian Dior — a post that had been empty for more than a year since the dramatic departure of John Galliano in March 2011.

“I feel fantastic,” Mr. Simons said by telephone from his studio in Antwerp. “It is one of the ultimate challenges, and a dream to go to a place like Dior, which stands for absolute elegance, incredible femininity and utter luxury.”