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Raf Simons: Subculture Exploration

Raf Simons is a Belgian fashion designer who launched his own eponymous label in 1995. He has extended his creative reach with work at Jil Sander, Christian Dior and most recently Calvin Klein, alongside seasonal collaborations with Adidas and Fred Perry among others.

His style incorporates references from an assortment of subcultures, from punk rock to high art, while maintaining a look that is all the while distinctly Raf.

Partial collections currently on Garment Files: SS15 FW15: To the Archives, No Longer Relevant SS16 FW16: Nightmares and Dreams SS17: Robert Mapplethorpe

More photos of pieces from the runway shows can be viewed on Vogue's website.

SS19 will be added to the website shortly, along with many other designers, after the season's sales come to a close.

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A Kind of Guise: Subverting the Classics

A Kind of Guise is in the business of the classics, but in a way that won't have you feeling that you've seen it before. Their clothing is highly wearable without feeling out of place. Season by season they add thoughtful details and dig up interesting fabrics for their clothing - from Harris Tweeds and Steiff teddy bear wool in the fall winter collections, to Italian silks and thermochromic fabric that changes color based on heat exposure in the summer. The lookbooks, shot in a different country (past collections have been based in locations such as Las Vegas, Japan, and the Himalayas.) using everyday people as models are always compelling.

Their current spring & summer collection, based in Indonesia, works in rooster motifs as prints and embroidery as a nod to the collection’s inspiration. This season also saw a limited release of one of a kind shirts created using resist-dyeing fabrics found from their journey.

Below are a few of our favorites.

You can now view some of this brand’s breadth on garmentfiles.

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Acne Studios SS14: Hilma af Klint

Marking the end of the excellent Hilma af Klint exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, today we will be looking at some of the offerings from Acne Studios during the Spring/Summer season of 2014 whose prints were inspired by the artist.

Hilma af Klint (October 26, 1862 – October 21, 1944) was a Swedish artist who was among the first to paint in the abstract style. However, she kept much of her output secret. Upon her death, she willed her paintings to her nephew with express instructions not to release the paintings until 20 years after her death. Her work dealt with the spiritual and made great use of color theory and other design principles. As a result, some of her work has the feeling of an attractive diagram.

Acne Studios and Hilma af Klint seemed like a natural collaboration given they both share the same birthplace of Stockholm, and both parties liberal play with form and color.

The collection included printed scarves, bags, shirts and sweaters covered in bold all-over prints taken from af Klint's work.

The pieces in this collection would work well as an accent to an otherwise minimal outfit. Secondhand pieces are relatively rare, but we found one College HK Print Black/Pink sweatshirt on eBay that needs a new home.

You can check out more of the collection on garmentfiles.com.

[garmentfiles]

introducing garment files

This week we launched garment files, a digital archive of clothing, archiving around 2,000 past offerings from A Kind of Guise, Acne Studios, Maison Margiela, Our Legacy, Saint Laurent Paris, Stephan Schneider, Thom Browne and Visvim. More will be added weekly.

While designers correctly wish to bring focus to their current collection, fashion fans find value in looking back over previous collections. The internet has spawned many specialized marketplaces such as eBay, Etsy, Grailed, and The RealReal that help buyers sift through used clothing. Slowly, it has transformed the way people value used designer garments from hand-me-downs into no longer available coveted pieces.

While seasonal look books are often preserved, details on individual garments fade from the internet as time passes. Details such as materials used and the manufacturer's description, as well as photos from third parties, can help authenticate and evaluate used purchases. garment files hopes to ease this process by providing descriptions, materials, place of origin, original MSRP and photographs for past items for both research and enjoyment.

garment files is a labor of love, but would not be possible without the fashion community. It is built off of photos available on the internet. If you are the owner of any photos and wish to have them removed, please contact the webmaster. Fashion designers and awesome independent shops that carry their goods we know and love would not survive without our support, so we urge you to show you their support as well.

Stay tuned for future updates and enjoy the fashionable trip down memory lane.