Fashion label Jil Sander announced it has appointed Belgian designer Raf Simons as its new creative director.

A professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Simons has had his own fashion line since 1995.

According to the Hamburg-based company, he will come into office on July 1 and will be in charge of women’s and men’s clothing collection that is due to be presented in Milan at the beginning of 2006.

"I couldn't be happier to work for a brand as pure and clean as Jil Sander," Simons said in a statement, reports AP.

The founder and creative director of the company, Jil Sander, known for her refined minimalist style, split with Prada, the majority owner of the label, for the second time in four years, over "strategic and financial" differences in November.