Simons says: Raf Simons fits the role of Jil Sander designer like one of his expertly tailored jackets.(Fashion Flash)

W, March, 2007 by Socha, Miles

The latest addition to Raf Simons's groovy, James Bond--worthy apartment in Antwerp is a George Nakashima wooden sofa, its base wrought from a giant slab of walnut and the backrest a chorus of pencil-thin hickory spindles. When a visitor suggests that it looks fragile, the Belgian fashion designer protests, leaping up from his Charles Eames lounge chair and plunking his six-foot frame down on the Sixties-era settee. Having studied industrial and furniture design, Simons knows about such matters, pointing to the bow tie-shaped joints Nakashima inserted to secure natural faults and cracks in the wood.

Simons, 39, practices a different kind of design wizardry, and in his spring 2007 collection for Jil Sander he showed his own deft hand for delicate fare such as a...