A Spiritual Tourniquet

Yes, you do need a fancy blanket.

- Johnny Davis

In his esteemed and long career in fashion, Raf Simons has demonstrated a fairly impeccable catalogue of influences. His clothes have referenced Kraftwerk, Le Corbusier’s furniture designer Jean Prouvé and the 1981 German arthouse movie Christiane F. Also, the lyrics of Leonard Cohen, the cinematography of Alfred Hitchcock and the still lifes of Flemish Renaissance painter Jan Brueghel the Elder. Yet rarely has a connection been made between Simons’s work and Peanuts.

“It makes me think of Linus,” says Andrew Groves, professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster, London, referring to Linus van Pelt, Charlie Brown’s blanket-wielding best mate. Groves is talking about Simons’s recently launched retail platform, History of My World—a new departure selling candles, books and homewear. Most notably, a set of 45 wool blankets. An instant sell-out, each blanket was unique, hand-made and featured typically Simonsian adornments of pin badges and printed patches. They featured pop-youth slogans like ‘Teenage Dreams’ or ‘Children of the Revolution’, alongside vintage childhood photos sourced from his team members.