Raf Simons has been announced as the new artistic director of Christian Dior more than a year after John Galliano departed the French fashion house in disgrace.
Speculation that Belgian-born Simons would take the role, described by some in the industry as a "poisoned chalice", intensified in February, when he left his position as creative director at Jil Sander to make way for the return of that label's founder.
"It is with the utmost respect for its tremendous history, its unparalleled knowledge and craftsmanship that I am joining the magnificent house of Dior," Simons said yesterday.
The top design job at Dior has been vacant since March last year, when the fashion house fired British designer John Galliano after he made anti-Semitic remarks in a Parisian caf.
The search for his replacement was headed by Sidney Toledano,
Dior's chief executive, and Bernard Arnault, the chairman and chief
executive of parent company LVMH (Louis Vuitton Mot Hennessy). The
latter was responsible for appointing Mr Galliano in the first
place.
Throughout last summer, Marc Jacobs, artistic director both of
his own label and of Louis Vuitton, was rumoured to be the front-
runner for the job at Dior. It is thought that the American
designer's excessive financial and contractual demands led to the
cessation of talks. Alber Elbaz of Lanvin is another big name who,
it is now widely believed, turned the job down.
Simons, 44, was born in Belgium in 1968 and trained in furniture
and industrial design before starting his own menswear label in
1995. He quickly rose to international prominence as a purveyor of
rigorously thought-out, impeccably tailored clothing that, given its
skinny, androgynous silhouette, overturned the prevailing more
traditionally macho view of masculinity entirely.
Since 2005, as well as continuing to produce some of the most
innovative and exciting designs under his own name, Simons has also
been responsible for mens- and womenswear at Jil Sander, garnering
both critical and commercial success. Over the past two years in
particular he has introduced a more feminine and colourful aesthetic
to a name until that point synonymous with a monochromatic and
minimal look.
Simons' history in menswear and the perceived view of him as a no-
frills designer might make him appear an unlikely candidate for
Dior, superficially at least. He is the house's sixth couturier.
Simons will show his first haute couture collection for the house
in July.
