Genk’s Barenzaal and C-mines are the backdrops for Raf Simons’s AW21 show

Utopia is a word that conjures many things, for many people. But unless you’re Raf Simons, it’s unlikely to bring to mind the cold, sterile surrounds of a former coal mine and power plant.

Genk’s Barenzaal and C-mine facilities were the backdrops for the Belgian designer’s AW21 ready-to-wear men’s and women’s collection, which featured A-line quilted silhouettes, baggy and bulbous overcoats and gentle flared trousers alongside staples such as the oversized white shirt, oversized sweaters and snoods.

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A soundtrack by Kraftwerk honed the sci-fi vibe, which riffed on the Barenzaal’s uber industrial aesthetic. Models milled past the power plant’s control panels, before disappearing down into a strobe-lit space below.

Simons revealed the inspiration for the collection on Instagram in six words: ‘DEVOTION,’ ‘DICHOTOMY,’ ‘ALLEGIANCE’, ‘EQUANIMITY,’ ‘SYNCHRONICITY,’ and ‘ATARAXIA’ – a Greek term meaning unperturbed and free of emotional anxiety (an aspirational state, given the global pandemic.)