Raf Simons Joins Prada as Co-Creative Director

Some loud announcements hit Milan Fashion Week: the Prada Group announced on Sunday that they were appointing the Belgian designer Raf Simons as co-creative director of Prada. He will take up his duties in April 2020 and will share this position along with the head of the company Miuccia Prada. Mr. Simons and Ms. Prada will have “equal responsibilities for creative input and decision-making,” the announcement said.

Raf Simons and Miucci Prada will present their first joint collection in September, at the next Milan Fashion Week. The appointment of the co-creative director is a big step for the brand. Thus, the leaders of the brand hope to change the prevailing ideas about the designers’ work in the industry and establish a creative exchange between two talented people. Prada assures that, despite changes in structure, brand’s values ​​and its relations with consumers will remain the same.

In December 2018, Raf Simons resigned as Creative Director of Calvin Klein and focused on developing his own clothing brand. The move marks the very first time that a very first time that a non-Prada family member will take on such a prominent creative role within the storied label. This will be the second time the designer will be working with Prada Group as Miuccia Prada and Prada’s Chief Executive Patrizio Bertelli had hired Simons as Creative Director of Jil Sander in 2005. The appointment had been highly lucrative for Prada Group as Simons had single-handedly guided Jil Sander to attain critical and commercial success during his 7-year tenure.