STORY BEHIND THE STYLE : JIL SANDER
"I am an advocate of modernity, an attitude that is rarely discussed today. By that I don’t mean a fixed style, but the need to optimize things according to the state of the art and a contemporary aesthetic."
QUEEN OF MINIMALISM
The house introduced true quiet luxury before it became a commercialized trend. Jil Sander was raised in Germany, where she worked as an editor for a fashion magazine called Petra. Around the same time, she opened her own boutique in Hamburg, striving to present new styles for womenswear. She always put design first, with high-quality fabrics and simple silhouettes at the forefront. Moving into the 80s, the house became globally recognized, and by the 90s, Jil Sander had become one of the pioneers of innovative minimalism. She opened a brick-and-mortar in Paris in 1993, and in New York in 1997. The brand truly redefined what functionality and luxury clothing could mean together.
PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS
Through the years, Jil Sander as a brand has immersed itself in different mediums and gained a range of partnerships, placing the house on new platforms and in front of new audiences. Behind every garment lies an underlying inspiration drawn from fine art, music, interior design, and more.
FRAGRANCES
Fragrance has been rooted in the brand from the start. When Jil Sander first launched, she released a fragrance called Pure in 1979, reflecting the house's philosophy and the simplicity it embodied. More recently, the brand launched Olfactory, a line of fragrances merging daily feelings and actions with more complex concepts.
APARTAMENTO REFERENCE LIBRARY
An exhibition was released with the publication Apartamento, showcasing 60 books, all of them on their own pedestal. The collection was curated by a range of artists and designers, each bringing a unique and personal perspective.
SOUND ZINE WITH CISCO RECORDS
A pop-up was created with the now-closed Tokyo record shop Cisco. The zine and curated playlist showcased musicians and other figures from the music industry sharing their perspectives on the crossover between fashion and music.
JIL SANDER X PUMA
First launched as a partnership in 1998, this collaboration continues today with a reinterpretation of the football shoe silhouette.
STONE COLLECTION
The Stone Collection was created with Venetian glassmakers Venini and design studio Formafantasma. These pieces are sold exclusively at the Venice store.
THE RAF ERA
Raf Simons becoming creative director of Jil Sander was a monumental moment for the house. He joined in 2005 and departed in 2012. With a background in industrial and furniture design, he first started his own line before interning under Walter Van Beirendonck — both experiences that jumpstarted his entry into fashion. He became a powerhouse for the brand, introducing vibrant new colors and silhouettes while still honoring the house codes, and was widely applauded for designing innovative womenswear as a male designer.
PHILOSOPHY
Jil Sander has always designed with quality fabrics coming first. Innovation and tradition run through its backbone, with organic and natural fabrics forming the core of the brand's garment-making.
STANDOUT SHOWS
- Spring/Summer 1991 — The start of the 90s minimalism movement, with Jil Sander at the forefront. Tailored silhouettes and suiting in neutral colors paved the way for a new archetype of woman.
- Fall/Winter 2012 — Raf Simons's final show for the house. The collection encapsulated, as Suzy Menkes described, “the concept of a woman in her own domestic environment with husband or lover... a day of family life and the beauty of that." It was a defining moment, showing how his seven years of leadership left a lasting impact on womenswear as a male designer.
- Spring/Summer 2018 — Luke and Lucie Meier Debut — Their first collection ushered in a new chapter for Jil Sander, introducing new fabric manipulations with an added edge and bringing fresh forms of art and culture into the brand.
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