Raf Simons, Furniture Designer
While the infamous Raf Simons is of course best known for his clothing, the innovator began his career in industrial design. As his 1991 university thesis project at SHIVK in Genk, Belgium he presented as a collection of minimalist furniture dubbed "CORPO." Little has been recorded from this era of the designer's work, but it is known that the collection consisted of a sofa, a cabinet, and a few couches with names like Protection, Ornament, and X-ray.
The collection was presented via a now-lost VHS tape. The skateboard love seat was documented in a '93 issue of a Belgian magazine and designer Max Reynders recently came into possession of the unique cabinet, which he shared via Grailed. "CORPO", Italian for "BODY" reflected on the inside structures of the human body and their outside structure, the skin and the accessories we place on it. Every piece from the collection can be seen as a body with an inside and an outside. The now iconic Raf Simons logo was introduced via this collection as a sticker on each of these pieces.