Raf Simons AW97 Lookbook

A/W 1997 marked Raf Simons’ Paris runway debut, for which he presented a collection that staked a claim on all of the key tenets of the first segment of his career. Colloquially called “School Punk,” but formally untitled, the collection focused on subversions of school uniforms: tailored wool shorts and crest-emblazoned jackets worn with punk t-shirts, loose-knit mohair sweaters, leather jackets, and DIY-ed Converse Chuck-Taylors. The collection was an immediate hit, propelling the retailer-favorite Simons onto the international stage, and represented one of the first forays of the youth-centric and subcultural mode of menswear design that would define the subsequent decade onto the Paris runways.