Raf Simons’ ‘Shaker System’ for Kvadrat is now available in a kids’ version (and it includes a teddy bear)

‘I don’t understand why our world, which is so controlled by human decisions, has evolved to such muted colours in daily life,’ laments the fashion designer Raf Simons, sunk into a fire-engine-red Jean Royère armchair in the front room of his vast, Liberty-style villa in Milan. Wearing, perhaps incongruously considering the topic of conversation, his monochrome uniform of a black sweatshirt and stiff, black jeans.

He’s speaking with Wallpaper* on the occasion of his latest launch with Danish textile brand Kvadrat, the ‘Shaker System’ collection for children, inspired by the modular storage rails commonly found in Shaker households. As well as two new textiles, ‘Ria 2’ and ‘Saxion’.

Shaker systems for kids

When we speak, Simons is a few days out from presenting the S/S 2026 collection for Prada, which he co-designs with the brand’s founder, Miuccia Prada. The pulse of fashion – fast-paced, ephemeral, high-stakes – feel worlds away from the quiet Protestant sect that inspired the Shaker storage system, which allows you to tidily attach objects to a fixed bar that runs the perimeter of the room.

'Normally, when you buy objects for your home, you put them on a shelf like a vase. But for things like a blanket, you either have to drape it over a sofa or fold it away in a closet,' he says. 'I always thought, if you like something, why not keep it exposed?'

The new edition, designed on a smaller scale for children, is the natural extension of that thinking. Simons has also created a range of new products that can be stored along the rail: a soft bag, a velvet teddy bear, a cushion, a wool jacquard blanket, and a hooded towel.

Raf Simons on colour

Today, sitting in his Milan living room, the topic he really wants to talk about – and what informs much of his work with Kvadrat – is colour. Or rather, the lack of it in our daily lives. 'When you think about objects we use all the time, like mobile phones – they’re always grey or black. It’s not that I dislike those colours, but I wonder why interior palettes are so often just neutral.'

His longstanding collaboration with the textile brand, he says, is a way of introducing vibrancy and expressive colour back into our domestic habitats. 'From day one, I said, if we do this, it will very much be about colour,' he says of the partnership.

He points to the ‘Ria 2’ fabric, a pointillist-inspired wool viscose that follows the original ‘Ria’, which he is launching this month in several completely new palettes: cobalt blue, black and aubergine; wisteria pink, hunter green and powder white. Simons describes the new tones as being inspired by the natural world.

'I was observing nature to design textiles,' he explains of his creative process. 'I’ve always been fascinated by those colours. I spend hours observing flowers, questioning: why is this yellow so pleasing? Why does this red feel strong? One colour is never just one colour. Often, it’s not even the colour itself, but the pigment’s interaction with other colours that attracts me. That’s how a lot of my early fabric designs began.'

October also sees the introduction of ‘Saxion’, which he describes as a gentler, warmer spin on the best-selling ‘Vidar’ boucle in colourations of ultramarine, rhodonite pink and sunflower yellow.

Simons also hints at future projects, including new textiles inspired by the work of the Vienna Successionists and bold prints of the 1970s. 'An interest of mine is fabric design with strong graphic impact,' he says. 'Design often comes from another world; you rarely invent something completely new.'

Kvadrat/Raf Simons kids collection will launch 9 October 2025 on kvadratrafsimons.com and selected stores: Barney’s New York Japan, The Broken Arm Paris, The Hyundai in Seoul and Overflow in Beijing.