Simons was born in January 1968 to Jacques Simons and Alda Beckers in Neerpelt, which was “in the middle of nowhere, a village between cows and sheep.” Both parents came from big families, and gatherings with aunts, uncles, and cousins fostered a sense of community and togetherness that Simons, an only child, was drawn to. “I’d run to the next farm, where they had ten kids, and I would become the eleventh.” It wasn’t a life of privilege or wealth, but it was one of absolute love and dignity.

“I am superproud of my parents—my mother was a cleaning lady, and my father was a night watchman in the army,” says Simons. “And now I stand in this world, and yeah, it’s a bourgeois environment, in a house that’s seen in France as the most important position in fashion, along with Chanel. But I don’t care about that. What I find amazing is that it’s a beautiful house where I can make clothes to make women happy. I was raised in a very happy nest by very happy people, and I like to think that those are enough ingredients to make me succeed at Dior.”

Read the rest of the article here at Vogue

Jack Smylie