Raf Simons' most iconic show is available in full on YouTube
The AW01 Riot! Riot! Riot! collection founded the myth of the designer as we know it today
Fashion
April 20th, 2020
April 20th, 2020
In recent articles in nss magazine that covered the aesthetics of the Toosie Slide video, the bomber jacket worn by Drake was mentioned in the video – a bomber jacket by Raf Simons that is currently one of the rarest, most expensive and iconic grails of archival fashion. The bomber made his debut in a show that became a matter of legend: the one for the presentation of the AW01 Riot! Riot! Riot! collection by Raf Simons. Although considered one of the pivotal moments for contemporary fashion, there were no recordings of the show in its entirety – until today. The YouTube channel YOURFASHIONARCHIVE has in fact found and published a very rare full video of the show, which you can find below.
The show took place in Paris, not in one of the sophisticated venues typical of fashion at the time, but in a former industrial plant in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The incorporation of flyers of Sonic Youth and Joy Division concerts, posters by Christiane F. and photographs attached to the garments created a DIY aesthetic that brought music, underground culture and anti-aesthetics into a chore. The use of volumes and layering was also revolutionary and was inspired by the East-European youth of the 1990s, marking a pivotal moment when street culture influenced that catwalk. Speaking to Swiss journalists, Simons recounted:
"At the flea market in Vienna, I saw youngsters from the Ukraine or Romania, who simply lay layer by layer and thus create their own volumes because of the cold".
The show was a decisive split from Simons' previous sartorial aesthetic on the catwalk and also marked a new phase in his work, as the downsizing of his team of collaborators led the designer to follow the construction process more closely. The iconoclastic intention towards more formal fashion previously brought to the catwalk by Simons also paved the way for the concept of anti-fashion explored today, among others, by Demna Gvasalia and remains a source of inspiration for designers to this day.
