Japanese designer [Shinichiro Arakawa](https://www.instagram.com/shinichiroarakawa_official/) has seen and designed it all. Throughout his time in the fashion industry he’s taken on challenge after challenge, creating everything from the beautifully frivolous to the stylishly functional. Most designers seem to understand their niche, and stick with it. In this regard Arakawa is an exception, with his work leading him to create a variety of designs built for explicitly different purposes. 

Born in Japan, Arakawa’s foray into art was rather humble, first starting off doodling on his grandmother’s newspapers. After winning an award for an oil painting he made in highschool, Arakawa’s varied interests in art would put him on the path to where he is today. Throughout his body of work, there have been consistent themes, a key component of which is the way that he balances both beauty and functionality. This flexibility and willingness to create a wide variety of art is part of what makes Arakawa so interesting; though what makes him so exceptional is the fact that he does it all so well. Recently ARCHIVE.pdf took the time to catch up with Arakawa, who graciously gave us a look into his long and storied career.

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**Growing up as a child, what inspired you artistically? Were you artistically inclined as a child?**

During my childhood, there was a period when I was left in the care of my grandmother, and spent time with her drawing on newspaper. This was the starting point for my love of art. My first oil painting, a portrait of my grandmother, I created in high school won the grand prize which is still displayed in the principal's office at the high school. 

**Initially what drew you to the world of fashion and design?**

In my youth, I believe it was when I saw the silhouette of the clothing worn by a friend swaying in the darkness of a nightclub in Tokyo.

Arakawa backstage at his A/W 1997 show in Toyko. 

*Following a chance encounter in a Tokyo nightclub, Arakawa decided to apply his fine arts degree to the world of fashion, rather than more traditional fine arts. After his graduation in 1990, he relocated from Tokyo to Paris to pursue a career in the fashion industry. In Arakawa’s telling, these next 3 years proved crucial to him becoming the designer he is today. In particular the time he spent as an intern and assistant to Christopher Nemeth at his label had a deep impact on the young man, both on a personal and professional level.*

**Were there any defining moments in your adolescence or young adulthood that have left a lasting mark on your design philosophy?**

I believe the influence of the people I spent time with in Tokyo, Paris, and London was significant.

**What was working as an intern for Christopher Nemeth like?**

It started with helping in the decoration work for the opening of Christopher Nemeth's atelier in Camden Town, London. During the atelier opening party, I helped with cooking in the kitchen and cleaning up the hall. Many people from the fashion and music industry in London attended the party, and I remember how stimulating it was. After that, I worked in London and Tokyo for several months. In Camden Town, I even worked as a chef preparing breakfast. It was amusing when, being Japanese, I made an English breakfast with sausages and beans for everyone. Apart from that, I engaged in tasks such as sample sewing, interior construction of the atelier, and assisting with shop staff.

Evenings were spent drinking beer or playing billiards in London pubs. There were times when we walked from Trafalgar Square to Camden Town, engaging in conversations. During that period, I was still enrolled at Studio Bercot in Paris, so I remember discussing life in Paris, friends and family, and London's fashion. I was told that if I wanted to become a designer, merely working as a designer's assistant wouldn't be meaningful, so I made the decision to start my own brand. From Christopher Nemeth, I feel I learned more about a way of life than just the art of making clothes. Though I may not be living up to the lessons I received even now…

**Out of all the roles you took on as an intern at Christopher Nemeth's label, which helped you the most when you later worked as a designer?**

I remember being told that the human body has no straight lines. I haven't used a ruler much in clothing production.

Shinichiro Arakawa's A/W 1995 show held in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa district. 

*Eventually gaining the confidence to start his own label, Arakawa’s eponymous brand held its first show in Paris in 1993, after which he held runway shows in both Paris and Tokyo. While designing, he often reflected emotions he himself felt as a designer, using these feelings to inspire and fuel his creative vision season to season. Themes of collections ranged from what many observers considered quite political to more existential questions of whether one should be free or merely a functioning cog in society, with his designs reflecting these ideas.*

I conducted a collection with silkworms as the theme. (1998 S/S Collection)

The collection revolved around the contrast between the silkworm, which sacrifices itself for the silk that humans wear, and the wild silkworm, called 'kusamushi,' which belongs to the same species but can fly freely.

Silkworms bred for silk production, despite having wings, cannot fly, and their eyes and mouths do not function. Conversely, the wild silkworm, or 'kusamushi,' can freely jump around, with functional eyes and mouths, but it is considered a pest as it feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree, which is the food source for the silkworms bred for cultivation.

Whether we, living in the present, align more with silkworms or 'kusamushi' is uncertain. Creatures deemed pests tend to be eliminated, but I believe the true pests exist elsewhere.


“Shinichiro Arakawa's show was particularly popular, with people packed in with anticipation, even if they were standing, hoping to catch a glimpse of the show more than an hour before the show started. Titled 'To All Hard Workers', the show was a social satire that likened the lives of hard workers to those of a silkworm. The lineup was stoic and humorous at the same time, with items such as crisp shirts and suits topped with cocoon-like knitwear from the top down, and shirt dresses with the cuffs sewn together. Overall, a crisp, mannish style seems to be the trend this spring.” (Excerpt from CUTiE January 1998.)

**You opened your first boutique in Paris in the 90s, what was that like? What were some of the differences you noticed between showing collections in Paris versus Tokyo?**

I had a great time as I was surrounded by many friends. Paris is a place that helped me grow, while Tokyo feels like my hometown. I had different feelings about each collection. In both cities, I feel that unless my background and way of life are incorporated and expressed in the work, my message will not get across.


**Tell us about 0cm4, your involvement with the film production, and the line that followed.**

I participated in 0cm4 by helping with the content, theme, and fashion. There is a lot of footage that has not been released yet. Also, my own directorial work 'BOMBYX MORI' that followed, was left unfinished.

*Not to be confined to just one area of design, Arakawa began collaborating with Honda in 1997. During this collaboration, Arakawa worked tirelessly to create clothing that was both functional and stylish. In particular, he focused on protective gear for motorcycle riders, that while remaining effortlessly cool, would also protect the rider in an accident. Arakawa was sucked into the world of functional design, going so far as to ride motorcycles on the highway himself. Eventually this love of motorcycles and high speeds led Arakawa to his current label. Focused around creating a perfect blend of form and function, resulting in beautiful yet protective garments, the label’s works truly are both from, and for, motorcycle riders.*

**Did you ride motorcycles a lot growing up or as an adult before designing motorcycle rider clothing?**

I've been riding since a young age. However, after coming to Europe, I wasn’t able to ride. Now, I ride European-made motorcycles.

**What was your time working at Honda like? What design roles did you take on there?**

I was involved in designing apparel for Honda.

There were two types of involvement with Honda: one was my fashion line with a design priority, and the other was the design of Honda's genuine motorcycle gear.

For the fashion line, there wasn't much difference from my previous experience in clothing making. I simply created what I wanted using the Honda logo. However, it was different for Honda's genuine motorcycle gear. One of Honda's company policies is to create items that are usable by a larger number of people, similar to motorcycles and cars. This meant designing products with good performance that could cater to various individuals. It involved setting the same size to accommodate both taller, slender individuals and shorter, heavier individuals. For example, designing so that both can comfortably wear the same size, such as a large size. This made the silhouette completely shift, and it was a very challenging task. I learned that there are various aspects to clothing design.

Motorcycle wear has a strong element of being a tool for human use. It's intriguing to balance both the functionality to protect the human body and the style.


“As the name suggests, Arakawa First Division has partnered with HONDA to present a new style of bike fashion in a more creative way. However, this is not just a self-indulgent collection, but rather a DJ-like remix that pays homage to the original ‘bike fashion.’ In fact, most of the clothes used in this show were remade from materials taken apart from existing racing items, such as overalls, blankets, and umbrellas. Not only will they be doing bike fashion this time, but they are also planning to collaborate on various items in the future, so why not look forward to it?” (Excerpt from H Magazine September 1997)

**Did anything in particular draw you towards the world of motorcycle riding and functional motorcycle clothing? In particular, what is it like currently designing functional motorcycle clothing?**

I believe the starting point was doing motorcycle fashion in collaboration with Honda, but at that time, the popular items were T-shirts, blouses, dresses, etc., printed with the Honda logo, lacking functional elements typical of motorcycle gear.

Around that time, I began receiving requests from people at Honda and in the motorcycle industry to design functional yet fashion-forward motorcycle gear. This became the catalyst. The desire to create something that didn't exist and the inclination to make life enjoyable when the world seemed dull had been present in me for a while.

Designing for functionality was a complete departure from the dresses created for visual beauty and aesthetic appreciation. Unlike the work of creating dresses indoors, focusing on curves and beauty, functional motorcycle gear involved wearing a needle-pierced toile while riding a motorcycle on the highways of Tokyo. It included verifying, modifying, checking comfort, mobility, wind resistance, etc., all while speeding along the Tokyo highways. In a sense, my clothing carries a great weight as it can be the difference between life or death for a motorcyclist. It's enjoyable to infuse my own sense of fashion into such clothing.

**In your earlier collections from the 1990s it seems like you centered around cultural criticism as inspiration. Do you still agree with those critiques, and is there anything happening now culturally that inspires you in that same manner?**

It's a bit unfortunate, but since starting the design of motorcycle gear, I haven't been creating clothing with cultural themes as much. Maybe it's because I'm not in an environment where I can be culturally stimulated, or perhaps such places have become scarce... While I can't directly compare 1990 and 2023, it feels like the city has become a bit more subdued. The fact that it has become subdued might, in a way, be a source of stimulation.


Shinichiro Arakawa's A/W 1999 collection.

**What comes first for you in the design process? How has this process changed over the years? **

Design can only go in the direction where the compass in my head is pointing… I don't know where it's pointing, and I don't know where it will suddenly turn in the future. It doesn't always point in the right direction, though.

**Looking forward, what message, if any, do you want your clothing to convey?**

The message embedded in the clothing may change depending on the times. Now, unlike before, there is a greater emphasis on custom-made production, so it might involve more individualized messages. It always brings me joy when my thoughts or expressions are communicated to others and appreciated. I hope to enjoy conversations through clothing.

**In terms of sparking conversations about clothing, what conversations do you think are worth having currently?**

Clothing reflects the creator's emotions at that moment, like a mirror. Wearing clothes made with love helps ease uneasy feelings.

**Of all your previous projects and collections, is there one that sticks out to you the most to this day?**

They all left the same impression on me. I still remember them like it was yesterday.

**Is there anything we didn’t cover in this interview you would like to say or talk about?**

Even though I've been away from the world of fashion for quite a long time, I am genuinely delighted and grateful that there is still interest in the pieces I used to create. Thank you very much.

*While Shinichiro Arakawa’s name may not have instantly rung a bell for you, his work has always had a following of people who appreciated his ideas and craftsmanship. Despite this, information and imagery on Arakawa is scarce in books and on the internet. We’re very happy to announce that with permission from Shinichiro-san, we are able to share these rare images from his personal archive. Going through collection by collection, featuring editorials, advertisements, and more, [click here view the full archive.](https://beta.archivepdf.net/archives/shinichiro-arakawa) Follow Shinichiro Arakawa on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/shinichiroarakawa_official/?hl=en) to stay up to date on his latest designs!*

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An exclusive interview with one of Japan's most obscure designers.

From The Runway To The Roadway: Interview with Shinichiro Arakawa

[Alan Bilzerian](https://www.alanbilzerian.com/) has been a staple in the Massachusetts fashion community for over 5 decades, and continues to make an impact in the fashion industry globally. After getting his Bachelor’s of Science in Finance from Nichols College, Bilzerian found his love for fashion through a post-grad Europe trip. He shifted focus professionally and soon opened Body Shop in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts with his wife Bê.

*“We started in 1967, and over the years I grew out of being one in a group of people in a routine. My idea was to get out of this system of retail and explore my own way of looking for new ideas. I traveled Europe and saw a chance to separate myself from the rest of the pack. We started to make a few things and buy them and it turned into something very successful. The attraction of what people really wanted kept making me go back. It was feeding into my satisfaction with what I had started... It was initially selling Issey Miyake in the 70s in Worcester, Massachusetts.” - Alan Bilzerian*

Body Shop was a fresh and new perspective towards fashion in the ‘60s and ‘70s, stocked with printed corduroy trousers, bellbottomed Landlubber jeans and velvet Western shirts. It allowed Bilzerian to expand his imagination for fashion retail, breaking barriers and pioneering new directions in fashion. 

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After 13 years in Worcester, Bilzerian and Bê decided to shift the business to the heart of Boston, as they relocated to Newbury Street in 1980 and renamed the storefront Alan Bilzerian. With a keen eye for emerging designers and brands, Alan Bilzerian was one of the first shops to showcase the works of Walter Albini, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Giorgio Armani, Katherine Hamnett, Rick Owens, Alexander McQueen and Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons. Alan and Bê worked extensively to introduce Japan’s “Big 3” to the Western world, and developed deep personal relationships with Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto. This helped the designers access a new audience on the other side of the world, as collectors and enthusiasts devoted their attention to the brands that Bilzerian showcased. 

Alan and Bê also kept a close eye on European fashion, as they purchased Alexander McQueen’s premiere collection and John Galliano’s graduate pieces for their store in Boston. They were also strong supporters of Martin Margiela’s initial collections, bringing the Belgium designers’ genius perspectives to Boston and beyond. 

Alan and Bê have devoted their lives to curating tasteful and timeless fashion collections to their clients and community. However, they are not focused on the commercialization of clothing. Their goal from the beginning was to showcase creativity through fashion and build a genuine community. 57 years later, their goal has not changed.

The ARCHIVE.pdf team was given the opportunity to interview Alan and Bê on a crisp Boston Saturday morning while capturing some of the most iconic and never-seen-before moments in the two’s journey in fashion. We are very excited to showcase this interview and let Alan and Bê tell their amazing stories. It’s time to give them their flowers.

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**Hello, Alan. Hi, Bê.**

**Bê:** Nice to meet you. 

**Nice to meet you again. It's been a while, so you wouldn't remember me. How have you been?**

**Alan:** I'm not bad. I'm hanging in there, for an old man. 

**It's a matter of perspective, isn't it? Well, tell me a brief history of the store. How did you two meet?**

**Bê:** We met in Paris. And then... [some] years go by. We met again because I was in Italy working for Fibucci, which I'm sure you don't know but he was like one of the big new upcoming stores in Milan. And he asked me to redesign his shop in Milan. So, I came with my friend, we came to the States. We were going around and I wanted to make his store into a diner, an American diner. So, that's when I met Alan again. 

**You think that it was meant to be, that you two both had interest in fashion?**

**Alan:** In fact, yeah. I was looking for velvet jeans in the late ‘60s – ‘68, ‘69 – and I was in a showroom in Paris and I asked the guy I was working with, ‘Do you know anybody that carries [an] unusual small production that I can bring back that's exciting?’ So, he gave me an address on the back of a match book and I got in a taxi. I'm in the taxi, I'm going, ‘Oh shit, I'm going to get screwed on this one.’ And he takes me to this residential area in Paris. 

In the back of the house that I was dropped off at was an incredibly beautiful small factory. I went in the factory, opened the door and they were making these incredible dresses in suede, very, very Native American but much more sophisticated. 

I wanted to redo everything and the woman said, ‘Can you wait a minute? I'll call the designer.’ I'm there for about 40 minutes and in comes the designer. I said, ‘I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to change this.’ At the end of the conversation with the woman who owned the factory, she said to me, ‘Are you going back to Paris?’

And I said yes. And she said, ‘I'll give you a lift.’ So, we got in her mini-moke and we drove into Paris together– we were both with other people [at the time]. But when we drove up to her house, there were three people standing in front of her apartment that were very close friends of mine. When we drove up, they were going, ‘Hey Bilzerian, what are you doing?’

**Bê:** At that time I had a band of musicians from New York staying in my place in Paris. So that's why those friends that he knew from New York were staying with me, and they were surprised to see him, and he was surprised to see the band. 

Hat selection inside Alan Bilzerian includes TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloist.

Avant garde clothing displayed inside the Alan Bilzerian store. 

Carol Christian Poell: Disparate black gloves, drip rubbered gloves, fingerless gloves. 

Coats and outerwear hanging on racks inside the Alan Bilzerian store. 

Japanese and avant garde designer items displayed inside the Alan Bilzerian store. 

**That's an amazing story. So you had the store set up before you even went on that trip to Paris? You've been going to Paris for a while.**

**Alan:** Yes. I've been going for quite a few years. I started in 1967, going to London. Well, that's when we first opened, in 1967, and a year and a half after we opened I said, ‘There's not enough here for me.’ So I started to travel to Europe by myself and I did England, France, and Italy, and I started to do Fair Isle sweaters. I don't know if you know Fair Isle sweaters– very, very beautiful. They're very valuable now because nobody does it anymore. And I was collecting all kinds of unusual clothing from the ‘30s. I brought things to Margaret Howell and Jean Howell to remake, because they had the capacity to do that. But I kept on going back every time I had a season to change. And when we started, [it was] in a tiny little shop. It was $115 a month [to] rent– I can't forget these figures. 

And it just progressed and progressed, and it absorbed my way of working. And I got to know Europe better than any of the [other] companies. 

**Bê:** That was good for you. Back in those days, the American generation was not traveling to Europe that much. It was an unknown territory, for you to go on vacation with your parents, but you don't go for work to research. 

And Alan has a very big bug about trying to find things. He loved to go hunting. That's his passion. He still loves to go hunting for interesting things, new things. That's why he still became known as having new things, different things, things that you would not expect. When we met in Milan after we were together, I introduced Alan to Prada. He had a store in Worcester, and he was the first one to have Prada in the US. People don't even know who the hell he was. 

**Alan:** Prada was selling me keychains.

**Yeah, I thought they started as a luggage outfit. **

**Bê:** Prada was working in her father's shop in the Galleria Passarella, and she was making jewelry for the store. That was her first passion, way back then. 

**Because they go by families. A lot of those historical families, especially in Western Europe, were multi-generational. So they would inherit the father’s [business]. **

**Bê:** Yeah, you pass them down. Some of them continue successfully, and some are not capable [of continuing]: It's stuck with the parents because the new generation doesn't know how to carry on. 

**Right, right. It's not unusual because Hermes has been, I don't know, maybe three centuries… So is that the same case for you? Riviere told me that you started the shop.**

**Alan:** No, In 1967 I opened a shop called Body Shop, and that's where it started, with $115– tiny little shop. 

**And your father was in real estate? **

**Alan:** Yeah, my dad was in real estate and I was very bored with what he was doing and I wanted to do something completely off the floor. Five years later we moved to a little bit larger store and it was called Moon. When we moved here, we put it under my name. 

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**What was the reasoning behind putting it under your name? You think it had more prestige doing it that way?**

**Bê:** It was me who instigated that. We were driving looking for a location, and we found a location and Alan said, ‘Should we keep calling the store Moon or should we find a new name?’ 

**Alan:** At that time it started to be too much related to the moonies. 

**Oh, right, Reverend Moon. **

**Alan:** Yeah, exactly. And it was sort of… uncomfortable. 

**Bê:** That's when I told Alan, I said, ‘I don't like any of those names that don't represent anything. Use your name.’ And he said, ‘are you sure? You know, my name is pretty strong. It's very ethnic.’ I said, ‘Who cares? I know that a name is good if you become successful. If you're not successful, the name is not good and it doesn't matter.’ 

**Al:** That's true, that's very motivating. But how did you come about starting the store in Worcester instead of Boston? Or Boston was an evolution of the store in Worcester? 

**Alan:** The Boston store was an evolution of Worcester. It drove me absolutely nuts to have people coming into the store and saying, ‘I had to come from Philadelphia; I had to come from Maine; I had to come from Vermont…’ Every day. Everybody said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And it actually worked on me: I got a beating every day. Plus, there were so many things emerging, where I missed out on a lot that we should have had. 

**Bê:** The city has a limitation. 

**Alan:** Yeah, you're talking about a city of 250,000 compared to a real city. They don't even have an airport. They have an airport on a thimble, a needle head. I mean, people brought their own planes to come and shop in our store. But I thought in my mind that the city would grow in the speed that I was growing. But it never really came about. 

**So as a consumer it was sort of like a treasure hunt, but as a business person it was very limiting. **

**Alan:** Well, yeah, it was. I would be so excited to bring these things to the shop and then it went… it was just an emotional flatness. I was exhausted by the excitement of what I was trying to drive through the customer… They didn't really care. I can't blame them. I mean, they're not doing what I'm doing. And so I just said this is not working for my psychic exposure. 

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Bê and Alan Bilzerian stand outside their namesake store, which has run out of Boston since 1980. 

**You had the establishment in Boston for how long now? **

**Alan:** We opened in 1980. So from 1980 to 2024, it's been an incredible ride. 

**Bê:** And it was really a perfect storm. It's all because we moved in ‘80 to Newbury Street. The real estate people told us, ‘You are crazy, you should move here. There's nothing happening.’

**Alan:** Yeah. This is the worst block. 

**Bê:** And I said, ‘I'm going to stay here.’ It's better to be in a place that is a little bit exclusive than instead being in the crowd there.

But that year, I was invited by the president of Issey Miyiake to come to Japan to go to the hot spring. It was a perfect situation– I really wanted to go to Japan because I felt like something [was] going on there. Because at that time we had the Walkman coming from Japan, we had all the high tech DVDs, and everything was in black... I really wanted to know what was going on, so I went to Tokyo. 

[Alan] opened the store, he was busy. [When] I arrived in Japan, a friend of mine called me at the hotel. He said, ‘There's a dinner party. I want you to come.’ I just landed after 15 hours. He said, ‘Just take a shower and come.’ So I went to dinner, and he introduced me to Rei Kawakubo from Comme Des Garçons. 

**Alan:** They hadn't come to Europe yet. 

**Bê:** This is before they debuted. And she invited me to her showroom the next couple of days to go and look at her clothes, her collection. 

I went there and I was out of my mind. I wanted everything. And she said, ‘Just tell me what you want, and we’ll ship it to you.’ At the end, I said, ‘You should go to Paris and do the show. Your collection's incredible.’ And she said, ‘Will you give me some names? Who to invite to my show? If I do the show in Paris, who should I invite?’ I said, ‘I'll send you a list of stores in the US that you should invite, and the press that I know in Paris.’ The rest of the week, I went with Mr. Tada from Issey Miyake to the hot spring. 

Then, I came back to Tokyo and I was with the director of Isetan, which was the big department store. He showed me the store and I saw in the corner [on a] stand, I looked at the thing and, my God, these trousers are so unusual, they're really nice. I asked everybody around me, ‘Do you know this company?’ The ticket only said waist, nothing else.

Nobody knew. I finally got an address. The taxi drove me there, and it was on the outskirts of Tokyo. I went into that shop and there was an older lady who received me and she was very rough. She said only two, three words of English. ‘Sit down and wait.’ And then a little bit after, the director came in. He took me to the showroom, it was a warehouse kind of place. I saw all those things and I went crazy. I said, ‘This is the best thing that could happen to me. This is unbelievable. You guys have to be showing this, nobody knows you exist.’ And he said, ‘Just put everything you like in a box and we ship it to you.’

Then he said, ‘Will you sit here? The designer wants to meet you.’ The designer shows up. It was Yohji [Yamamoto].

And we sat down and talked about fashion; about everything. And then the director said, ‘Bê, can you stay an extra day? Because of Japanese law, we have to have documentation.’ 

**Alan:** It's very complicated. Because at that time there were quotas on each particular fabric. So anyway, you had a file for a license to ship to America. 

**Bê:** So anyway, I said, ‘I fly tomorrow, but I'm going to see. I have to tell my husband I'm not going to be home tomorrow.’ And he put out the phone and said, ‘Call your husband.’

I called [Alan] and said, ‘I found this incredible collection, it's going to be better than when we found Armani years ago. It's so new, It's so different. I have to stay.’ 

Alan said, ‘I don't care what the hell you do. They just stole my Porsche.’ Click. [Laughs] And Yohji started laughing, and he said, ‘I like your husband. I want to meet him.‘

**Did you find the Porsche?**

**Alan:** Well, what happened was half an hour after I went to the front of the building, then to the back, [I said] I know I parked it here. Two minutes later, the phone rings. It's the police: they said they're coming down to arrest me. They said, ‘Your car was in a hit and run.’ 

**Bê:** So anyway, Yohji and Mr. Hayashi organized to ship everything. And I came home with all those boxes, and I'm telling you, we opened the box and it was like a fire was happening. Customers were coming in, going crazy. That's when we were at number 12. 

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**I thought you were in this spot?**

**Alan:** No no, we were at number 12 because we moved in 1980. We were open for only four years and then I bought this building. So we had to wait till the leases ran out and then redo the building, and then move the store from 12 to 34. 

**Bê:** So that's when Yohji and Rei started showing in Paris. 

**Alan:** It was perfect timing, it was absolutely perfect timing. 

**Bê:** The Yohji collection was all black, Rei was all black. And the first show they did, Women's Wear Daily, had the front page with the big name, ‘Sarunaya,’ bag lady because they had a sweater. So nobody was ready to accept this invasion of fashion from Japan. 

**And it was very racially charged too because the title was ‘Hiroshima Chic.’ It was a very famous title for them. **

**Alan:** Well they didn't want to give them a vehicle. [John] Fairchild hated the way they had all of a sudden emerged. And [Yohji and Rei] never spent any money on advertising. So they didn't want to actually give them any position. 

**Bê:** Fairchild resisted because Rei and Yohji went to Paris, and Paris embraced them. The French recognized that before New York, and the explosion happened there. [In America], they said, ‘Oh no, we're not into that; the bag lady, the clothes are not clothes, they are trash.’ 

But the consumer here didn't care about the price. They were into it. I mean, it was insane. And that vehicle made us even stronger. We were the first store in Boston [to carry them]. People, even from New York, were coming here. 

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**The stereotype nationwide is that Boston is a very conservative city, and I would assume back then it was a different atmosphere compared to that. **

**Alan:** No, no. It was very, very conservative. It was just that there were pinpoints of timing. People were reading about it, they were waiting for this to happen. They didn't know where it was going to be, who had it, who was going to be the first. We just happened to have the perfect timing of having the emotion to say, you know, I have a feeling something is happening in Japan. 

Before that, when we met Mr. Tada, who was the president of Issey, I went to the first show in Paris of Issey. It was in the basement of La Coupole, a huge restaurant. It was like 8:30 in the morning, I was dragging my ass to the show. I saw the show and I'm going, are you kidding me? I was so inspired and after the show I went backstage and I said I want this from my store in Worcester. It was in Worcester we started Issey. 

**Rest in peace, it is too bad he passed away. **

**Alan:** Yeah, yeah, great friend. He gave this dinner in Paris and he only invited one store out of all the people that were there, everybody else was press. 

**Bê:** It was his birthday. 

**Alan:** It was kind of like, the way I started as a hippie with long hair, and looking for the most unusual, and found Issey. We had Issey in 1968, 1969, in Worcester, with Prada, [and] Armani Black Label. 

**Bê:** But then here in 1980, with Rei and Yohji, it made us even more hungry to go hunting. I mean, we've been lucky, but it was very interesting to find an unknown designer that has something to say, that maybe we suspect it, but we don't know what it is.

At that time in Boston– maybe it's a coincidence and it's just a perfect situation– it was a lot of professional people, architects and people in the art field or design field, who were really interested to find us, and what we discovered gave them inspiration, and gave them energy, even in their field. 

**Alan:** You know, it was very interesting. Constantly people from Harvard, constantly people from MIT. It's still the meeting road. Architecture and design and fashion are still crossing us all the time. When I want to be inspired, I buy a new architectural book to see who is putting something in Brazil, who's making something anywhere in the world. It can't be just Italian or Japanese. 

Alan Bilzerian walks the runway at Yohji Yamamoto Spring / Summer 1994. 

Alan Bilzerian attends Maison Martin Margiela's debut show, Spring 1989 at the Cafe De La Gare in Paris.

**Do you think the ‘70s and ‘80s were the “golden age of Boston cutting edge fashion”?**

**Alan:** The ‘80s for us were so fantastic. We felt that we had something that nobody could really duplicate, and it was so far out compared to what everybody was wearing. Nobody wanted to make the attempt to go towards that. They didn't know what was coming. They didn't know the feeling that was emerging…. It just kept on getting bigger. Kept on getting stronger. 

**I was curious about how folks that were older than I was, how they happened to adapt in the environment on Newbury Street; how Alan Bilzerian, and maybe a couple of other shops, fostered this environment of fashion around the ‘80s. **

**Alan:** It was two completely different pictures. We had a completely different symbol of who we were at that time, because we really instigated that entire image of the Japanese. Between Rei, Issey, and Yohji, which were the three pioneers coming to Europe and showing [that] they were the depth in Japanese fashion, we didn't deviate from that. We were committed. 

**Bê:** We got so involved with Yohji that he wanted to meet Alan, and the relationship developed into a friendship and then he asked us, ‘Can you help me? I want to open a store in London. Can you do it? Can you help me?’

So we ran around looking for the perfect place for Yohji. We put down the idea on paper of what we wanted, he said, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ I said ‘Can you tell me, do you want the store to black? You want it white?’

He said, ‘I don’t know, you do it.’ [Laughs] So we opened London and New York at the same time.

**Alan:** We became very close friends. Many times he stayed in our house, when Bê wasn't feeling well. After a show, he got on a plane and went back to Tokyo and called me up and he said, ‘I'm going to be in Boston next week.’

**Bê:** He came just overnight to see me because I was very sick. 

**Alan:** Rei and him came here when they were together. They came and spent the weekend with us. That was a long time ago. 

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Isaac Sellam black passager bag on display at Alan Bilzerian. 

Rick Owens black leather shearling-lined biker jacket on display inside Alan Bilzerian. 

Hats displayed on top of a shelf inside the Alan Bilzerian store. 

Detail shot of custom Alan Bilzerian hangers. 

**How do you feel about those designs becoming the mainstream? Do you think that's a good thing? **

**Alan:** They're really not so mainstream. You know what I mean? They're individuals that are always going to be separated from the bunch. Maybe with some of the secondary things that they've done–

**Like Commes Des Garçons Play. **

**Alan:** Exactly. 

**Bê:** Or like Yohji does Y-3. So that is more mainstream, and that will be more exposed. 

**Alan:** I think that these people are the essence of unusual aspects of taking fabric or understanding… They're very conscious of the street. They're very, very modern in a lot of ways. 

**What I love about those designs is the intensity and the detail to the craft is what I find very attractive. The Japanese aesthetic. There was one example of a business that's been around for 400 years, and all they sold was Gyoza or something, only one item. **

**Alan:** And then, they just focus on that one thing. Making it better. 

**And just reiterate, reiterate. Like this here, the average designer wouldn't think about putting a back button to reinforce. And you know how long I’ve had this jacket? **

**Alan:** They've taken every single 1940s or 1930s piece that's ever been made apart. And they've gone through the waistbands, the interfacing, all the actual aspects that make the piece not look on the outside very good, but the inside better. 

And that's one of the keys of success with them, where people say, ‘this is my favorite piece of clothing. What do you have that I can continue with that's exactly like that?’ You know how hard that is to tell somebody, ‘we don't have anything? We don't have another thousand dollar pair of pants?’ That's part of the whole rhythm of what they do. 

**Well they're not alone, right? Because their influence transcended to other designers from other nations like Ann Demuelemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs… **

**Alan:** Margiela.

**And you've got the ones like Poelle, right? What do you think about that designer? **

**Alan:** Oh, Carol's a completely different project. Carol's on a completely different wave. I bought Carol's first collection 35 or 40 years ago— I stumble on these things. The nose or something tells me where the smell is and I find it. 

**From Austria, right? **

**Alan:** Yeah. I bought his first collection, this guy that I knew had it, and we bought it and it was absolutely incredible. Then he went through some kind of… I don't know what he wanted. And then he reinvented himself again and we were there to continue with him. And now he's like, the god for the kids. 

**Bê:** And you have people that emerge like that, like Maurizio [Altieri], we used to go and buy his shoes and his clothes. Maurizio from Carpe Diem. 

Carol Christian Poell leather boots and drip sneakers on display inside Alan Bilzerian: Ice-Dart Handled Sneaker, U-Officer Prosthetic, Black Tornado Zip Boots, U-Boot Prosthetic, U-Jack Prosthetic Boot

An up-close look at Carol Christian Poell leather boots and drip sneakers on display inside Alan Bilzerian: U-Officer Prosthetic, Black Tornado Zip Boots, U-Boot Prosthetic, U-Jack Prosthetic Boot

**What brands excite you? **

**Alan:** I think still Japanese small companies keep on emerging as technical and fabric-oriented. The best denim in the world is coming from Japan. There's a whole area, like Worcester would be, where denim is being made in Tokyo. That's where every beautiful piece of selvage denim is being made. 

So you can't say that Japan is already played; that tune is not going away. They work so much harder to make something, like the knife handle that's been made for 400 years. These people will make the best fitting jean in the best fabric that they can, and they won't give the indigo dye formula to anybody. When they die you've got to come up and make your own formula, you have to find the root and make your own dye. And if you can’t find the color that they've been [using] to make the denim so beautiful, too bad. That's your problem. 

**Bê:** But I also think that because there's so many names, and so many big names everywhere, you can be in Milan, or in Paris, or on Madison Avenue; everything's the same. 

**Alan:** People keep on coming into the store and saying, ‘You know I'm so bored with seeing the same merchandise in every store.’. 

The success of what we are about is hard work. It's hard work. You go to Europe. We don't go to a show, we're going to pound the pavement, to be exposed [to] basically everything that we can totally feel that there's gonna be longevity. 

I met Margiela, before Margiela was ‘Margiela’, because he worked for Gaultier. When I met him, I knew what he had done, and then I went to his first show. We bought it for Worcester. We sold 12% before sale [Laughs]. I couldn't even swallow, and I said, ‘Oh shit, this is unbelievably bad.’ So sometimes you're not on the road to where the consumer is. 

**Bê:** If you want to make a lot of money, you go mainstream. We are not.

**It can't be just the money. It has to be something else. **

**Alan**: It's the passion. It's the emotion. It was always the stimulation, more than having a big, beautiful store. I mean, Barney's did their thing, and it’s sad that they're not around, because people need to see different images of big and small. 

**Would you say that your primary customer respects you and stays with you over all this time because they know the amount of work that it takes? Is it trial and error? **

**Alan:** I think they're committed to us because they feel that the staff has the same allegiance [to them] as the designer has to us. You know, we're family on both sides. We're family to the designer, and family to our staff, and the consumer reads that. The people who shop here all the time, they see the same stability. 

**Bê:** We have customers who have been shopping here for 30 years. You know, a customer from Boston, she went through a very hard time health-wise. Our staff after work would go and visit her, on their time. 

Then they come here, the customer comes here and we treat them with respect and the consideration of, you know, their advice. It's something that you can’t have in department [stores], it's very difficult to cultivate that. 

**Yeah, sustainability, right? **

**Bê:** Talking about the time when Boston was so hot, that’s when we decided to ask Jean-Paul Gaultier to do a fashion show in Boston. That was very special. Jean-Paul came in at that time, he gave carte blanche to do the whole thing on our own. He shipped the collection, and he flew from Tokyo to Boston that day to come to the show. 

**Alan:** That was a great time. 

**Bê:** Back in those days, we could do those things. It was very interesting. 

Yohji Yamamoto black and white asymmetrical puff-sleeve collarless women's jacket from alanbilzerian.com

Carol Christian Poell flat half-circle four pocket ripple-effect jeans with scar stitching from alanbilzerian.com

Avant Garde Elena Dawson silk velvet blazer outerwear in olive from alanbilzerian.com

**So how's the evolution in your eyes, from since you opened the store until now? What's your overall feeling about the whole fashion world?**

**Alan:** I think people are very interested. I think the new generation is very, very conscious of how they look. I think there's always going to be, even if you're on your phone all day long, I think people are still very, very interested… There's an evolution, though. 

**Bê:** There was a gap at one point, that the young generation, I mean what we call the young, was not as interested. But then now is the rebirth of young people, but really young– 17, 18– who are really passionate about real fashion. 

**Alan:** Yeah, it was a little stop gap there. 

**Bê:** The gap was because that generation was so focused on social media that they lost the value of real— the identity of fashion— activity. 

**Alan:** That's what happened. That period was very strange. It was almost like a numb period. Everybody was numb with social media. 

**Bê:** And then the real creativity kind of was numb, too. Now it's like a rebirth. The energy in music, in fashion, in sport, in everything, is so new.

**People are realizing they need to touch more than visualize the product. **

**Alan:** Well, they're just getting through the massage of COVID.

**Bê:** We just hired a young girl who graduated from university. She's 24, 25, and she said to me at the interview that she wished she didn’t have social media anymore. She wanted to cancel her account. She said it invaded her life, and she doesn't want that anymore. 

**Well, you know, like my son, he wants to invest in archival products, like the camera, [and the] fashion. And it's the same thing for music collectors. They want to get the vinyl records. The same thing. They want to see the history. **

**Alan:** They want to go back and really trace where this whole thing came from. They want to know, they want to understand. They can't even believe that we're still using Macintosh and JBL speakers. We're like from goddamn, the cave land. They go, ‘is that what's playing this music?’ Because everybody's synthetic. There's no depth in what we really see in people. 

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Letting Alan and Bê tell their amazing stories. It’s time to give them their flowers.

From Boston to the World: A Conversation With Alan & Bê Bilzerian

The words ‘Raf Simons’ can often spark a wide range of emotions across the luxury fashion scene and youth culture as a whole. The legendary designer has shifted the paradigm of fashion forever, as Raf was one of the pioneers of mixing high quality tailoring with rebellious messages and designs. He established timeless designs in a seemingly effortless manner. From his humble beginnings apprenticing under legendary Walter Van Beirendonck, to his shifting of fashion hierarchical thrones from Jil Sander to Dior to Calvin Klein to now Prada, it is no wonder that so many people have been influenced by his work. Now at the upper echelons of fashion and culture, Raf’s legacy in the archive fashion community remains unmatched, with some of his most iconic garments reaching over $40,000. But despite his unbelievable levels of fame and success, only a small group of people know of Raf’s work before his clothing ever came into existence. Even the legend himself has been extremely private about this part of his past, but sooner or later the curtains have to be raised. Enter [Raf Simons Corpo](https://www.instagram.com/rafsimonscorpo/). 

Before his namesake label became a global phenomenon, Raf Simons began his industrial design studies at SHIVKV in Genk, known today as the Luca School of Arts. This was where his creative energy truly began to blossom. One of his key projects, that was pivotal in shaping his creative spirit, was Raf Simons Corpo: an extremely small line of seven unique furniture pieces, each representing different aspects of the human form and anatomy. As the furniture were being brainstormed, Raf worked alone in his personal atelier to create the pieces in private. Only small shards of information about these pieces are available in the world today, but with the help of Max Reynders, we can bring these pieces together and unveil the mystery that is Raf Simons Corpo. During the 1990s, Max’s father was close friends with Raf and was gifted with 5 of the 7 RSC pieces. Now passed down to Max, he and his team aim to preserve these pieces of fashion and furniture history, all the while sharing this unknown part of Raf’s career to the world at large.

Max’s team and ARCHIVE.pdf have joined forces to provide you with an exclusive 2-part feature conversation to delve into the world of Raf Simons Corpo. From an interview with Max Reynders himself, to the unveiling of Raf’s history with furniture design, a deep dive into each RSC piece, and more, we hope that this feature can help share this hidden gem with both yourself and the world that isn’t aware of such greatness. Yet. 

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**How long have you been developing and curating this content? You briefly said in 2010 that these pieces were given to yourself, your brothers and sister. What was the catalyst for you to sit down, research the history, and begin the storytelling of Raf Simons Corpo?**

As a kid, I grew up with those pieces in my near settings: sometimes some were even part of our living room. As kids, we did know of the existence of Raf, I never met him personally as I was just too young at the time. When I was a teenager Raf worked for Jil Sander and Dior. That was the moment that I realized we had some exceptional Raf furniture pieces in the house and then the research started. Last year we started to give one Corpo piece some attention. We hope we can bring them all to a bigger audience this year.

**Has the Corpo collection been purchased slowly over time by other collectors and patrons, or did Raf personally gift almost all of the pieces to your father?**

The total Corpo collection was about 7 different designs. Raf did give 5 of the 7 pieces to my dad. All pieces have Raf's logo and signature, and all have the number ‘1_1991’. We have no idea about the state or condition of the two remaining Corpo designs or who owns them. So this still remains a mystery.

**Along with the Corpo collection and Raf’s designs, we would love to get more insight about your father and his connection with Raf.**

Raf and my father studied together and graduated in 1991. So exactly 30 years from now. Raf and my father lost contact some 20 years ago, around 2000. Their careers went in different paths, my father stayed in conceptual furniture and works as a craftsman and artist by building all his pieces by himself in his own ateliers (comparable with the haute couture of the fashion world). Raf went to fashion, works with different external ateliers and houses, and on a much larger scale. I think, nowadays, their ideas and point of views are quite different. 

**Does your father have any interesting memories of going to school in a small class with Raf?**

I remember one story about ‘designer-shoes’... Raf and my father studied industrial design in the second half of the eighties. In those days ‘The Antwerp Six’ became famous, so their stories intrigued a lot of designers-in-education. Raf did his internship at Walter Vanbeirendonck, and by that he also got in contact with other design-studios of the six of Antwerp. After the internship, Raf came back to the school with bags full of ‘designer-shoes’ single-used on catwalks... At the end of the eighties Raf, my father and some others were, shoe-wise, the best clothed students in Belgium…

**In terms of the designs and Corpo itself, what is your favorite piece from the collection & why? What design elements of that specific piece is evident through Raf’s fashion works today, if any.**

My personal favorite is the 'Corpo Protection’; the closet with the chain mail outside.

First of all, chain mail is not fashion related. Chain mail is pure functional clothing. It’s only to protect. In the Middle-ages it was used by knights, today for example by butchers. Secondly, a closet is a vertical coffin/chest. And the coffin was the first piece of furniture of mankind. It was designed to transport personal pieces safely. It was only to protect.

Raf Simons Corpo 'Protection', courtesy of Max Reynders.

Raf brings the chain mail and the coffin together in one piece of furniture; the Corpo Protection. He designs a silhouette (body on legs) covered with chain mail which has the function of a closet. He mixes protection-clothing with protection-furniture, clothing-culture with furniture-culture, to create something Raf.

A concept he still uses quite a lot in his later period as a fashion-designer, even until today.

**We would love to learn more about your fascination with furniture design in connection to Raf’s history. It seems like a significant amount of contemporary fashion designers have a strong architectural & furniture design background. Many may not know that Raf is one of them. In your perspective, what’s the bridge between architecture and fashion?**

When a designer graduates as an architect or a furniture designer and starts participating in their field they will be confronted with two limits to their creativity: time and the client's demands. For example: an architect designs/builds for a client. The client has a personal request and a personal view. The client has a certain budget. The building is for a specific place and a specific function. The project will take a year or several years. To realize the building you have to work with a lot of different constructors. Experiments are uncommon or extremely expensive, etc. 

With a comparable idea/concept in fashion everything can go more personal (the designer creates/visualizes his concept/point-of-view and the client(s) is involved in a later stadium), faster (2 to 4 collections a year), more room for experimenting, etc. So I think, in fashion, a designer has more freedom to explore their creativity. And that kind of freedom is quite attractive for a creator. And in the last decade we also see that creatives are no longer limited to one discipline. A lot of creatives do a mix, and are architects, interior designers, furniture designers, fashion designers, artists, painters, sculptors etc. Once you have an idea or concept you can translate your vision in a lot of different scenes.

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**We want to get your perspective on the increasing saturation, especially in this niche community of archive fashion that no longer feels niche for some. With the overwhelming increase of saturation & mainstream attention in the niche archive community, how do you feel about the inflation of these archive fashion pieces?**

These pieces always represent an iconic moment in fashion history. And if something is iconic, it can become cult. It’s comparable to collecting art, or enjoying food at a five-star restaurant. Prices are always about supply and demand, if something is cult in combination with rare you can imagine that prices go up. Whether that principle is good or bad, you can’t change the way the world works. So I think the artistic value of the pieces in combination with the economic demand and rareness results in a price. But the art of archiving is not about how much you spend on pieces, it’s about how big your passion is for those pieces.

**There are a few articles regarding the Raf Simons Corpo pieces you’ve put up for sale on Grailed and a good amount of the chatter has been about the listing prices. Do you believe this is the best way to provide exposure for this amazing piece of fashion and design history; on a marketplace that is now filled with “shock-value” listings? Ideally, how would you want to market these pieces to fully showcase your vision?**

As mentioned earlier, the base of all is the cultural value of something. Unfortunately, a lot of people are not capable of seeing or spotting that kind of value by themselves. On the other hand, everyone worldwide understands the value of money. If you put a certain amount of dollars or euros on something all of a sudden people understand the value of it. So, why not combine those two parameters? By putting a certain value on something unknown, but culturally quite important, you receive the attention immediately. 

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The Raf Simons furniture pieces were and are totally unknown. They’ve been forgotten in the history of Raf Simons. They were never mentioned in his oeuvre, but very important in his transition from industrial designer education to his fashion designer career. By putting some of the furniture pieces on Grailed, we shocked the fashion world and we did give immediate awareness to these important Raf Simons furniture pieces of the early 90’s. Now these pieces have the attention they will value themselves. Fashion historians and fashion lovers will be able to judge them because the pieces are aware. 

**Do you have any intention of putting up another piece of Raf Simons furniture on Grailed, just to bring that shock & immediate awareness again like the first two?**

We will do what’s necessary to give the pieces the attention needed, so who knows, it will depend on how things evolve. Our target is to bring it to a level fashionistas and experts will value the items on their cultural value instead of a dollar-setting.

It’s clear that these Raf Simons Corpo furniture pieces are in the right hands with Max and his family. Their overall goal is to share these pieces with the world to people have never heard of the Corpo collection before. Besides the amazing pieces of furniture and images, the story of Max’s father receiving the furniture pieces from Raf personally is truly captivating. We’d like to thank Max and his family for providing us with these amazing resources and highly encourage you to follow their Instagram [@rafsimonscorpo](https://www.instagram.com/rafsimonscorpo/) to stay up to date with the progress of their collection. 

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Exploring Raf Simons’ early furniture designs, revealing a forgotten chapter before his fashion career.

Raf Simons Corpo: Revealing the Furniture that Came Before the Clothing, Part 1

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From 1986 to 1991 Raf Simons studied Industrial Design at SHIVKV in Genk, Belgium. The classes were very small, mostly between 10 to 20 people, so anyone who stood out could easily been seen. The academy of Genk back then was for most students a big step towards a bigger city. Most of the students came from a small town in the province of Limburg. This step created for every student a new inspiration and a development of their persona. 

As a student, Raf had interest in a lot of cultural scenes: art, music, fashion, etc, which is still seen in his fashion collections later on. As his passion for music has always been there, he was an alternative guy at school. Raf always had a passion and interest for fashion, and even at school it was already visible. 

In his third year at the design academy (1989), Raf did an internship at Walter van Beirendonck’s studio. The fact that Raf did an internship at Walter was a new sign he wanted to see more of that world of fashion. At that time ‘The Antwerp Six’ were growing, and those six showed to a lot of young Belgium creatives that there was a possibility to become known around the world for creating something unique and personal. This inspired Raf and many others from his generation, to keep on pushing and creating, and that everything is possible in the worlds of design and fashion. 

Raf was a mystery at school and still is. He was very protective when creating. For example, in their final year, each student had a private atelier and Raf’s atelier was stickily forbidden area for colleague students. In 1991 Raf graduated with this personal project named CORPO, which means body in Latin. 

Raf explains that Corpo was made to actualize a furniture accessory with a twist of his own personal way of developing this. He worked in a way of collecting multiple aspects; cultures, ideologies, texts, products, materials, theories, philosophy, imagery and visions. He used these elements to create a combination which led him to a new product. He states, “I start from Disorder to design in to Order”. Research and development come together during this process. The key to making these elements come in harmony is to find the right balance between them. 

Corpo is a relation about the human body. Raf talks about the inside structure and outside supplement know as skin. He refines this by talking about the dressing up, body ornaments and body decoration. The central idea is the relation between the human body on one side and the incarnation of the product on the other. Every product can be seen as a body with an inside and an outside. His final study Corpo has been 7 different pieces in total. 



En-Garde which is made of a stainless steel harness that refers to the coat of mail from middle ages used to protect the warriors, but also seen on butchers to protect themselves from knives. Artificial outside to protect the inside. 

Lesson one in anatomy. An X-Ray analysis of cultural beauty definitions. The secrets of beauty in different cultures which lays underneath a hidden beauty. 

Obsession is all about the skin and body transformation, mutation and malformation. Corsets in particular which creates the perfect artificial female body. The Cabinet is wrapped with a corset so this literally is a reference to female beauty and how it was manipulated throughout time. 

An accessory cabinet which is multifunctional, and highlights the packing and functionality that men need in their clothes. This corset can be switched to both sides. Leather outside and a cloth inside with multiple pockets. 

Body Structure, outside transparent protection, artificial metallic skin. A more see-through material is used here to complete the illusion. 

A sacred accessory, religious beauties. A definition of multi-religious accessories which show piercings, chains that refers to religions worldwide. 

Skin to protect your insides like a snake. He refers to packaging as a second skin to protect the inside. New skin could be seen as a new image. This cabinet is wrapped with snakeskin and leather on the inside. Reversible as Raf wanted to show that skin can change the image. 

The explanations of the Corpos are all made clear by a video from Raf Simons. After his studies the video was multiplied on VHS and made public by Raf's former agent Linda Loppa. That video isn’t exposed yet on the world wide web. We are still gathering more and more documentation around Raf’s time at school, so we can add more to the [RafSimonsCorpo Instagam Page](https://www.instagram.com/rafsimonscorpo/) and make a great documentation around this period. Below are some unseen screenshots of the infamous Graduation video. 

The owner of the pieces is Antwerp-based [Max Reynders](https://www.instagram.com/max.reynders/), a young designer who says he acquired the items through his dad. 

“My father graduated in the same class with Raf in 1991, both as furniture designers. (My dad still designs and makes furniture [@casimir.be](https://www.instagram.com/casimir.be/)). When Raf had plans to move to NYC in 1999 he gave them to my father. In 2010 the pieces were given to me, my brothers and my sister. As they will be 30 years old in 2021 we want to share them with the world.” 

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Max Reynders is the owner of the RafSimonsCorpo Instagram page together with one of his closest friends, also a Raf fanatic. They both have the urge to show these Raf Simons furniture pieces to the world/people. They want to spread awareness to these pieces as these are the foundation of Raf Simons' later transition towards fashion. 

As they have both seen the pieces and documentation about it, they want to shed light into these masterworks of Raf. People always have a lot of interest in Raf Simons' life and way of thinking. As Raf Simons is a mysterious designer with many secrets to discover, this looked like the perfect opportunity since the pieces have become 30 years old. Small details like his usage of cultures, music and fashion ideals show that Raf already had a passion for fashion at an early stage of his life. For us this is like looking at the purest form of Raf's philosophy about beauty and how he wants to change it, and be a part of it. 

One of the Corpo cabinets and Agena 2 which was also one Raf's early creations are both on Grailed. Putting a high price tag to the pieces was/is a way to spread awareness. As we succeeded last year by publishing the first Raf furniture piece on Grailed: Corpo Protection. The piece received a lot of attention in 2020. 

As people think a Raf Simons ‘Riot Riot bomber’ is an ultimate grail (and worth 60k USD), we disagree to that. A bomber that is produced with a quantity of +100 isn’t really that much of a piece of history like an art furniture piece which Raf made himself by hand and not in in multiple quantities. 

At this moment there are probably less than 12 remaining Raf Simons furniture pieces (from the period 1990-1995) in the world! Seven of them are in one private collection. 

The history around these Raf Simons furniture pieces is far beyond any clothing Raf ever produced. We hope one day this furniture will get exposed and shown to the masses to let people learn more about Raf Simons. 

Our main goal with the page is to shed light on Raf Simons his past. And the beauty of how he became a designer. We are providing the page with regular updates and showing more and more inside documentation around Raf and his works of furniture/art. As we are also inspired by Raf, this is close to our hart. It’s an interesting and personal research and we love to share it with others. 

Explore Raf Simons' 'Corpo' collection, a series of seven unique furniture pieces inspired by human anatomy.

Khan Delin

Scanner

Chrome Hearts Richard Stark Photograph

East Meets West

Writer

Raf Simons Corpo: Revealing the Furniture that Came Before the Clothing, Part 1

Raf Simons Corpo: Revealing the Furniture that Came Before the Clothing, Part 2

Photographer

From Boston to the World: A Conversation With Alan & Bê Bilzerian

Interviewer

From The Runway To The Roadway: Interview with Shinichiro Arakawa