Raf Simons A/W 2016

Mood board: This collection marks the 20th anniversary of Raf Simons’ namesake menswear brand as well as his first post-Dior show. A list of references given out at the show went on to reinforce everything we already covet about Simons’ well-established oeuvre. At the top were four names including the designer Martin Margiela - whose influence could be seen in the exaggerated proportions of varsity jumpers and coats – and the artist Cindy Sherman. Sherman’s major European retrospective, Untitled Horrors clearly influenced the prevailing twisted American teen in a scary movie charisma brought to this season’s clothes.

Scene setting: The show took place within a wooden maze structure. The audience stood jostling against each other so as to maintain the narrow runway that was marked by only a thick black line on the floor. The show began with the voice of American composer Angelo Badalamenti talking about his longstanding collaborative process with David Lynch. In particular, he spoke about the music he designed for Lynch’s cult TV series Twin Peaks, which Simons later said was the soundtrack to his own creative maturation as a student in the early 1990s.

Best in show: Oversized, distressed jumper sleeves in a range of colours from Flemish blue to American red, jutted out from underneath neat, half-sleeve trench coats. However, it was a glorious selection of enormous, gleaming puffer jackets in aubergine, off-black and two-tone blue that became increasingly appealing as temperatures fell below freezing in Paris.

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