RAF SIMONS - Fall 10

It is now of common knowledge that Raf Simons has taken a new direction, entering what I see as the phase 2 of a well organised style and business plan, the youth subcultures influences have been swept away and so with the close to hysteric cult that was following him to be replaced with an endless take on how to do ( and sell ) tailoring in the 21st century. It's not only on the catwalk that radical changes have been made, behind the scene drastic repositioning led to a new communication policy, the omnipresence of the logo, the launch of advertising campaign and a re-targeting of the desired press. Out of the dark and into the light could we think, I unfortunately tend to think it is a case of commercial matters, and after so many years of groundbreaking design who could blame Mr. Simons....
For Fall 10, the tailoring obviously stays as the central spine of the collection, with experimentation to get closer to the body by the use of activewear systems. Velcro tabs gathering suits at the waist and Velcro strip applied gave the now usual for Simons futuristic touch to the collection, bringing even the coats down to a combination of separated items worn over suit.
Maybe the attendance has changed, surely the fans are growing up and some going away, but Mr. Simons knows his taking the path of (re-)inventing tomorrow's tailoring that we like or not.