Wall Street Journal Article
If Raf Simons weren’t the influential fashion designer behind Jil Sander and his own eponymous line, he’d like to be a ceramicist. “There’s something so romantic about it,” he says. “I think about the South of France, the nature of clay, working with your hands. Fashion is such an octopus. You’re connected to so many people: suppliers, pattern makers, production teams, marketing teams, vendors. . . .” Six years ago, the 43-year-old Belgian went from being the under-the-radar, trend-driving menswear designer of Raf Simons to the top man at Jil Sander. With that coveted post, which includes overseeing men’s and women’s wear, has come much critical praise—particularly for exploring minimalism through proportion and color in women’s wear—and countless opportunities. But Simons remains notoriously private. Quiet and sensitive, he lives alone in Antwerp, preferring the gentle lull of that city to the hardworking buzz of Milan, where he is obligated to spend almost 110 days a year for Jil Sander. He does not attend the high-flying black-tie affairs that are standard for so many of his peers. And he rarely allows himself to be photographed. “I’m not so rock and roll,” he says, jokingly. “I’m more techno.” In more ways than one, his art-filled apartment has become his sanctuary.
Designed in 1968—Simons thinks it’s kismet that it’s the year he was born—by a Belgian couple who imported Modernist furniture, the two-story, open-floor-plan apartment is a primer in mid-century Modernism. A longtime collector of mid-century furniture, Simons knew he would buy it the minute he saw the wenge-wood floating staircase, built-in cabinets and floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass windows. That it’s located in Antwerp’s heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, far from the ritzy homes and shopping area near the city’s central cathedral, didn’t matter in the least. Nor did the creaky floorboards and outdated electrics. Simons, who purchased the apartment nearly six years ago, hasn’t changed a thing. “It’s perfect just the way it is,” he says, sitting on a Pierre Chapo chair in a plaid button-down shirt and paint-splattered Alexander McQueen denim shorts. “I love the ’50s and ’60s; we were going to the moon; people were wondering what the world was going to be like; there was this idea about being surprised by the future.” He’s even learned to embrace some of the home’s quirkier elements, such as five marble planters that randomly jut out of the entryway floor. (Finding plants that can survive in the low light has proved more difficult.)
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