Last night at the CFDA Awards, Raf Simons did something no designer has done since the early ‘90s — and no, it wasn’t “show flannel as formalwear.” Simons won both the Menswear and Womenswear Designer of the Year honors last night for his work at Calvin Klein. The only other designer to do that? Klein himself, back in 1993.
And Simons must have been genuinely surprised by last night’s double victory, because when it came time to deliver his second speech he jokingly ad-libbed, “Blah blah, we came to America because America is inspiring and all the people …” before citing inspirations like David Lynch and George Condo — and delivering a heartfelt message to the whooping and cheering fashion students sitting in the balcony. “It’s our task more than ever to inspire and to be an example,” he said. “If we as creators can be an inspiration for how the world should look, we should take that as a very important task in our existence.”
