Sims was born in Sheffield. He worked first as a photographer’s assistant with Robert Erdmann and Norman Watson. He was taken on by a photography agency and his work began to feature in editorial pages of magazines such as i-D, The Face Vogue and Arena Homme Plus.[citation needed] He has also worked in advertising, creating images for brands such as Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander and Yohji Yamamoto.