Luca Lemaire

Luca Lemaire is a Belgian model from Brussels whose relationship with Raf Simons began with the designer’s fall-winter 2013 campaign. Repeated advertising and runway appearances made him closely associated with the label, while work in its Antwerp atelier gave him a role in the development of the clothes.

Speaking to Fashionista in 2019, Luca described that relationship in practical terms, saying, “I think, little by little, I became a member of the Raf Simons team” and identifying modeling as his contribution. As a fit model, he wore collections while they were being developed and offered feedback on fit and the usefulness of details.

His industrial design studies helped him understand the garments technically and gave him common ground with the studio. He attributed the initial connection to his look and his rapport with photographer Willy Vanderperre and stylist Olivier Rizzo.

That photographic relationship became another defining part of his career. Vanderperre photographed Luca for the Raf Simons / Sterling Ruby fall-winter 2014 campaign and devoted an issue of his single-model /12 publication series to him in 2018. Luca also closed Simons’ fall-winter 2018 Calvin Klein show in New York.

Design remained an independent pursuit. In a 2020 interview with Behind the Blinds, he was completing a master’s degree in industrial design and working on several projects. “I like to create, find solutions,” he explained, describing modeling as a change of pace that let him travel and inhabit different roles before returning to his own work.

His wider advertising portfolio includes Zara and Sandro, followed by Ferragamo’s spring-summer 2024 campaign, photographed by Vanina Sorrenti. The sustained studio relationships and his own design interests give Luca’s career a connection to how objects and clothes are made, as well as how they are photographed.