Last night, Raf Simons presented his Spring 2018 collection during New York Fashion Week: Men's, which took place in Chinatown underneath the Manhattan bridge. Chinese lanterns printed with artwork produced by Peter Saville, who's worked with Simons before, for New Order hung from the ceiling. Of course, there were also celebrities in attendance: ASAP Rocky, NBA champ Andre Iguodala, Raptors power forward Serge Ibaka, Julianne Moore, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashton Sanders, and Marc Jacobs.
During the show, models—both male and female—walked down the runway holding umbrellas. It was reminiscent of a scene from Blade Runner where Harrison Ford's character Deckard heads to Chinatown. There were also neon signs that spelled out the word "REPLICANT," a reference to the fictional biorobotic androids from the 1982 sci-fi film.
"There are a lot of things that go back to my early days and why we started doing the things we did," Simons said about the inspiration for the collection in an interview with Vogue. "So there was strong music references from the past, as you can see. But there are juxtapositions in a different way taken out of context, basically; it’s about movies (about Blade Runner, clearly), it’s about cultures sliding together—that’s the most important message for me, Asian culture and the culture of the west coming together. And you know there was a bit of new wave, punk attitude, but not aesthetically, more in the attitude like taking different kinds of things . . . good vibes . . . I wanted it to be energetic.”
The collection included 50 menswear looks—distressed tailoring, wide-brimmed hats, wide trousers, oversized sweaters, glossy raincoats, knee-high galoshes, pouches in collaboration with Eastpak, trench coats (some emblazoned with Saville's Joy Division album art), and more. All of the suiting and knitwear pieces were comprised of Merino Wool, a collaboration luxury wool authority The Woolmark Company. In addition to apparel, Simons also presented new Ddidas Detroit Runners and Adilette slides.
Check out the entire Raf Simons Spring 2018 collection below.