Mapplethorpe Menswear
Raf Simons pays tribute to the photographer
It’s been quite a year for Robert Mapplethorpe. The legendary photographer, who passed away in 1989, has a retrospective up at LA’s Getty Museum. HBO aired a documentary about his life back in April. And now designer Raf Simons has celebrated Mapplethorpe’s provocative photographs by incorporating them into his latest collection. Simons, who has a history of collaborating with artists, was approached by the Mapplethorpe estate. “They wanted to know if I was interested in finding a way to do something together,” said Simons, who jumped at the chance. “With Mapplethorpe, the quality [of his work] is almost shocking. It’s like almost every photograph is mind blowing. The challenge for me was to deal with how difficult it is to incorporate photorealistic prints in garments. It’s so easy to go wrong doing that, so I wanted the clothes to look very simple and serene.” Here’s a look at Simons’ historic collection.
