After an eight-year absence, designer Jil Sander, known for her minimalist aesthetic, triumphantly returned to her namesake house in February 2012, succeeding
Raf Simons , the brand’s creative director since 2005. However, after just three seasons back at the brand, Sander left the label for the third time, citing "personal
reasons". The news broke following speculations about disagreements between Sander and Prada. For her tenure at Jil Sander, she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz
in Germany. Her departure was met with the appointment of the italian designer Rudolf Paglialunga as creative director, formerly at the helm of Prada womenswear.
When Paglialunga resigned just three years later, the married couple, Luke and Lucie Meier took up the position as co-directors in April 2017. With previous experience
at the likes of luxury fashion houses Belciaga, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Raf Simons , the duo embarked on their first official design venture together. Reimagining the
brand from a modern functionality lens, the couple launched Jil Sander+, a collection focused on “life beyond the city”, which was debuted at the Milan Furniture Fair
in 2019.Milan Design Week also saw a collaboration between the co-directors and the Australian artist Linda Tegg, who created a living installation inside the Milan
Jil Sander headquarters. The installation featured a sizeable growth of mosses, succulents and other grasses emerging from the floor, in an experimental exploration
of our relationship with nature.
5 things you need to know about Jil Sander - To get to know better the “queen of lean” and her brand
1. The beginnings of her career - Considered to be one of the most influential and talked about designers in international fashion, Heidemarie Jiline Sander was born
on November 27, 1943 in Wesselburen, Germany. After graduating in textile engineering from the Krefeld School of Textiles, she moved to Los Angeles where she
embarked on a career as a fashion editor for McCalls magazine, an experience that she herself defines as fundamental in the long and tortuous path of understanding
the fashion industry. Due to the unexpected death of his father, Sander decides to return to Germany, where he will open his first boutique as a freelance stylist
moved by the idea of creating clothing for identification and motivation purposes.
2. The troubled relationship with Prada - But it was only in 1973 that the designer appeared on the panorama of the fashion industry by launching the fashion house
Jil Sander GmbH, where her minimalist glamor characterized by simple and pure elements certainly did not go unnoticed. Despite the strong approval and great success
received, the designer, due to economic problems due to the high manufacturing costs that her line required, sells 75% of her company to the Prada Group in 1999,
which saves her in economic terms but deprives her the brand of his iron, pure and incorruptible soul. This is why after only six months, the founder leaves her own
maison declaring that she has had incurable disagreements with the new CEO Patrizio Bertelli, husband of Miuccia Prada.The absence of the designer is evident and
the brand begins to suffer the first serious financial setbacks. In 2003 Jil Sander took over the reins of her brand, a decision that further deteriorated the relationship
between the German designer and Miuccia's husband; it is now clear that cooperation between the two is impossible and in 2004 Jil leaves the brand again.
3. Raf Simons' creative direction - In 2005, Belgian designer Raf Simons was appointed as the new creative director, marking his debut in womenswear and maintaining
contact with the essential and linear minimalism of the brand. After 7 years he leaves the maison to devote himself full time to the creative direction of Dior.
4. The last "goodbye" - In 2012 Jil Sander returns, but his stay lasts only one year. Having now taken the decision to leave the fashion scene definitively, while remaining
behind the scenes, it follows at first the appointment of the stylist Rodolfo Paglialunga and finally, in 2017, of the spouses Lucie and Luke Meier, the year in which the
maison finally returned to grow thanks to their ability to keep faith with Sander's values but at the same time contaminate them with a streetwear background (Luke
is one of the co-founders of Supreme) and high-fashion (Lucie worked for Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga), elements that make the brand rich in contemporary pragmatism.
The latter is an excellent compromise for a brand with strong codes but which still wants to tell the present.
5. Minimalism - What would minimal be without Jil Sander? Many mistakenly attribute to the term minimalism adjectives such as gaunt, cold, boring or devoid of a soul,
while omitting its elegant, emotional and light appearance that tends to eliminate the extras to give space to the quality of the garment.Every cliché linked to minimalism
is lost in Jil Sander's collections, where minimal is associated with an element of emotion that reaches us in a simple but direct way. The style of the maison, in fact, is
decidedly contemporary and with an intellectual content. The designer was one of the first who believed in masculine elegance for women, who, while wearing genderless
clothes, do not lose their graceful and always true femininity.The use of neutral colors, cashmere, pure shapes and minimal opulence let us glimpse an oscillation between
minimalism and conceptualism contaminated by the dynamic vision of current fashion. The result is a collection in line with the present but which does not lose its recognizability.