Raf Simons Departs DIOR

A round-up of commentary from top fashion critics:

Hearing today that Raf Simons has resigned from Christian Dior stopped me in my tracks, as it did everyone else. But in one sense, I’m not surprised, and in another, I’m impressed. The news threw me back to the startling honesty of something Simons told me the day after his wildly lauded first couture show in 2012: “I’ll stop if I have no ideas anymore,” he said. “Fashion is not the only thing that can make me happy.”
I can’t say whether Simons’s decision to leave three and a half years later is directly related to feeling that he’s run out of ideas for Dior. He cites “personal reasons” in the official press release.

Sarah Mower. Sarah Mower Asks: What Does Raf Simons’s Dior Departure Mean for Fashion?

Still, it doesn’t seem that surprising. Fashion moves so quickly now. Who, besides perhaps Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, settles in and retires from a house anymore? 

Who settles in and retires from any job anymore?

... 

 

 The spring 2016 ready-to-wear collection that Simons showed earlier this month turned out to be his last for the house. He presented that collection in a multistory space seemingly carved from a mountain of flowers in the courtyard of the Louvre. It was not a collection that paid homage to the history of Dior. And it was not the work of an indulgent designer. It was a nod toward the future — a questioning of it. Is there a place for restrained, calm and simple beauty? 

In many ways, the setting echoed that of Simons’ debut show for the house, the haute couture collection he presented in July 2012. The preparation for that show was chronicled in the documentary “Dior and I,” which explored his dazzling decision to line each room of a grand mansion with walls of fresh flowers. The aroma of the flowers was intoxicating. The experience was transporting. The clothes signaled an auspicious beginning.

- Robin Givhan. Surprised that Raf Simons is leaving Dior? Don’t be. Fashion is a rat race like any job.

But Simons was frustrated by the lack of time to create. For his debut show, in July 2012, he had eight weeks to prepare, but that was soon cut in half, given other demands on his schedule. That was okay, he told me a few months ago during an interview for System magazine that will appear in early November, because Dior’s workrooms and their network of suppliers could turn things out at amazing speed. But as he said then, “When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for the whole process.
Technically, yes — the people who make the samples, do the stitching, they can do it. But you have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important. When you try an idea, you look at it and think, Hmm, let’s put it away for a week and think about it later. But that’s never possible when you have only one team working on all the collections.”

- Cathy Horyn. Why Raf Simons Is Leaving Christian Dior

Both @Dior and @Balenciaga lost their designers after only abt 3 years. Is this a new trend?

— Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) October 22, 2015

Luca Solca, head of global luxury goods analysis at Exane BNP Paribas, pointed to the example of Hedi Slimane at the rival brand Saint Laurent, a designer known for not simply making the clothes for the brand but also for photographing the ad campaigns and creating the furniture in the stores as the new paradigm for many peers. “It seems to me many people are looking at Saint Laurent in awe,” Mr. Solca said. “The bar has become very high for creative directors to emulate that.”

Mr. Simons, who is Belgian and trained as an industrial designer before starting his men’s wear brand in 1995, joined Christian Dior in 2012 after six years as creative director at Jil Sander, his first women’s wear job. Though he maintained his men’s wear brand throughout his time at both Sander and Dior, analysts estimate it has annual revenues under €10 million. 

Speculation now centers on who will be named the next Dior creative director, and a search has just begun. Though the brand declined to set a time frame for its choice, there is some urgency because the luxury industry as a whole is suffering from slowing sales and a challenging global consumer climate, and a house without a creative identity is at risk.

Vanessa Friedman and Elizabeth Paton. Raf Simons Bids Farewell to Dior

The bottomline: Raf Simons’ exit at Dior speaks to creative tensions of luxury - FT

And so, in the world of pretty and ugly-chic fashion, the search is on, anew.