Raf Simons

Every weekend, I'm on the highway to Antwerp. I need to be there, to have the calm. It's a whole different life: I jump on my bike, and it's so small, I can be anywhere in a minute. I like to be at home when there's free time because when you're at a big company, you're constantly surrounded by 30 people.

If I see a fashion show with literal influences, it doesn't make me think any more. It doesn't make me dream.

Dress codes and gestures and attitudes have always inspired me, as has youth culture in general, although now I question it more. If you analyze youth cultures over history, there has always been something strict about them - you have to be like this or like that.

I couldn't go now to a brand that had a niche attitude like... gothic. I couldn't do that. Well, I could do it, but I wouldn't find it interesting, challenging.

I never really have to sit at a desk thinking, 'What should I do now?' It doesn't work like that for me, and it never has. My thinking process is constant.

My whole life, I've always had to be surrounded by creative things. I find it relaxing to be in touch with creations by other people.

My point of view is that if I love a certain kind of beauty, I want more of that beauty. I don't need 200 different beauties.

The fashion world doesn't know the word 'stop,' so you have to make sure there are sublime moments every day.

Berlin is in a state of transition. There are lots of people who don't stay here. They pass through. They might not 'clean up,' but they mature. It is a city where people spend a significant time in their lives, and then they move on.

My challenge is to find a beautiful balance: to make women beautiful, to make a woman dream to wear a beautiful outfit.

I'm not an isolated person. The more I connect to people, the more I have the feeling that things work.

Antwerp literally was a trash hole, but fashion changed that. The designers there were extreme, and their work was hard to understand. But now, people from all over the world come to Antwerp to shop.