Belgian designer Raf Simons to be creative director for Jil Sander, Prada Group. Raf Simons will create both men’s and women’s collections, starting with fall winter 2006-2007.

Jil Sander left the company that bears her name in November 2004 after a number of reported discrepancies with Prada chief executive officer Patrizio Bertelli. Jil Sander brand has been in decline recently.

Belgian Raf Simons is most famous for his avant-garde menswear, and this is going to be his first experience with womenswear. His initial training was in Industrial Design, and he spent some years designing furniture for galleries and interiors. Raf Simons apprenticed with Walter van Bierendonk in Paris, and learned tailoring from a leading Belgian tailor before launching his first collection in 1995.

Raf Simons, who has been a tutor at the Fashion Department of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, said in a statement: "I couldn’t be happier to work for a brand as pure and clean as Jil Sander. I am eager to carry forward the simple and pristine design...There is a strong affinity between how I perceive my own design and the core values that the Jil Sander brand embraces."

Simons will continue designing his namesake menswear collection, shuttling between Antewerp, where he is based, Hamburg, the base for part of the Jil Sander production and Milan, reported WWD. 

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