Designers Switching Houses & Moving to New Brands

[readings]

God, such sad news for Helmut Lang. I'm so sick of seeing badly cut, tasteless, superficial, cheap clothes with huge logos and/ or meaningless quotes everywhere.

 

[Benn98]

Jil Sander Confirms Exit of Rodolfo Paglialunga

The designer joined the company three years ago as creative director and his last collection was for fall 2017, shown in February in Milan.
By Luisa Zargani on March 15, 2017

MILAN —In a widely expected move, Rodolfo Paglialunga is exiting Jil Sander, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

His last collection as creative director of the brand was shown in February in Milan for the fall 2017 season. Paglialunga joined Jil Sander three years ago after helming Vionnet.

In leaving Jil Sander, Paglialunga emphasized his pleasure in contributing to “enrich the brand’s history and legacy.”

Chief executive officer Alessandra Bettari characterized the parting as mutual, underscoring Paglialunga’s “impeccable work and respect for the DNA of the house.”

Jil Sander is controlled by Japan’s Onward Luxury Group SpA.

As WWD first reported in January, Lucie and Luke Meier are expected to succeed Paglialunga. Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux respectively headed the spring and fall ready-to-wear and couture studios under Raf Simons at Dior before stepping into the spotlight between the exit of the couturier and the arrival of his successor, Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Meier worked in the design studios of Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton earlier in her career. Her husband Luke is the cofounder and designer of men’s label OAMC.

Source: http://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/jil-sander-confirms-exit-rodolfo-paglialunga-10844349/

 

[Nymphaea]

I wasn't impressed with what Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux did at Dior, so no high expectations for Jil Sander at all.

 

[reese06]

This is all so exhausting and feels as if the corporate fashion house bubble is bursting.

 

[rip_ian curtis]

Source: http://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/jil-sander-confirms-exit-rodolfo-paglialunga-10844349/

It's really sad to look at the demise of the brand... Jil Sander is a house with incredible history and sophisticated creativity. I hate to see it helmed by people who truly cannot see what it really is about and what is beautiful in Jil's work. It's not just oversize shirting, suits and bulky coats. Paglialunga had his moments of beauty and he showed some artistic touches in the cut (a quintessential part of Jil Sander), but it really got buried under all the heavy silhouettes and fabrics he favored. If the Dior duo really is really coming, I don't expect much. They showed no understanding of Dior nor had any taste or skill to pull of minimalism and purity the same way Jil or Raf did.

 

[donyan]

I have no hopes for this although I would love to be proven wrong. I was hoping for Christophe Lemaire or Lutz Huelle, somebody with a clear visiion. Jil Sander has not been relevant since Raf Simons, it needs somebody as strong and clear as that to pull this brand out of the doldrums.

 

[Pricciao]

With the current shape everyone is going for, this brand won't do good with or without a suitable designer. The mainstream slouchy, drappy and overstyled look is fundamentally against Jil to perform well. It'll be a burden to whoever takes this job.

 

[StoneSkipper]

I completely forgot these two would be taking the helm... really, I'd love to see someone like Lucio Vanotti do something beautiful at the house, but oh well. I'm not holding my breath, but I do want to see what they'll come up with.

 

[fashionista-ta]

With the current shape everyone is going for, this brand won't do good with or without a suitable designer. The mainstream slouchy, drappy and overstyled look is fundamentally against Jil to perform well. It'll be a burden to whoever takes this job.

Is the brand really for followers?

 

[Pricciao]

Can a brand survive without followers? Sure not.

 

[perhydrol]

If the Dior duo really is really coming, I don't expect much

But Serge Ruffieux has been the creative director of Carven for three months already.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Can a brand survive without followers? Sure not.

Surely you understand my point?

I don't think the Jil Sander woman really cares what everyone else is doing or what the mainstream look is. Jil Sander exists apart from that, and has an audience no matter what, if it's done well.

Like how Tilda Swinton remains Tilda Swinton regardless of what fool trend everyone else is chasing.

 

[donyan]

With the current shape everyone is going for, this brand won't do good with or without a suitable designer. The mainstream slouchy, drappy and overstyled look is fundamentally against Jil to perform well. It'll be a burden to whoever takes this job.

well, Jil Sander should really be up there with Celine and The Row, both of whom are inspired partly by Jil Sander , and both took over . They took a lot of bad decisions at JS, and I doubt this was a good one . It's sad really .

 

[Marc10]

OAMC is a pretty cool brand so at least for the menswear I'm a bit reassured.

 

[Lola701]

Paglialunga was so wonderful at Vionnet. It's a pity that he left the brand because he really made that brand exciting again.
He should go to Schiaparelli.

I feel like the same thing is going to happen for the new guy at Marni.

WHO DOES JIL SANDER NAVY?
Because it's much much much better than the mainline. I don't know who in the team is in charge of it but there's a lot of potential there.
If i was the CEO of Jil Sander, i would totally change the strategy of the brand.
JS NAVY in terms of price point and fashion and also quality is really good. Now that Marni is in creative trouble, they can totally take their clientele. The JS NAVY line should just become JS and keep the price point and all, and then try to make it work.

Jil Sander may be a great name but i don't see myself spending 4000 Euros on a coat from a brand with no real creative integrity.

Prada really did wrong to those brands. It's really a pity to see what Helmut Lang and Jil Sander has become. And to think that the founders of those houses are still alive is even more heartbreaking.

 

[Pricciao]

Surely you understand my point?

I don't think the Jil Sander woman really cares what everyone else is doing or what the mainstream look is. Jil Sander exists apart from that, and has an audience no matter what, if it's done well.

Like how Tilda Swinton remains Tilda Swinton regardless of what fool trend everyone else is chasing.

Their business level is rather large, at that level it's not the die hard fans to guarantee the business, but also pedestrians cashing in, to reach the goal that's deemed as a success for them. How to do so? Hype, isn't it?

 

[tricotineacetat]

If i was the CEO of Jil Sander, i would totally change the strategy of the brand.
JS NAVY in terms of price point and fashion and also quality is really good. Now that Marni is in creative trouble, they can totally take their clientele. The JS NAVY line should just become JS and keep the price point and all, and then try to make it work.

Jil Sander may be a great name but i don't see myself spending 4000 Euros on a coat from a brand with no real creative integrity.

Prada really did wrong to those brands. It's really a pity to see what Helmut Lang and Jil Sander has become. And to think that the founders of those houses are still alive is even more heartbreaking.

JIl Sander Navy is exactly one such example of an ugly stepchild being born from the missteps of when Ms. Sander herself was no longer there, and had been released at the time when she, on the other end of the market, had just launched her wildly popular venture with Uniqlo, +J - Taking into account you could get Jil Sander cut and designed clothes made in a decent way at such a price point, it was a very unfortunate timing for Gibo group to have launched a line that was still by far too expensive for fairly mediocre quality and design. Navy lacked the rigor, precision and depth of 'real' Jil Sander design and employed basic fabrics that could have just as well been had at Uniqlo, at a price point (300€ and upward for a cotton shirt, 700€ and more for a simple blazer) that did not help to open the house of Jil Sander to a wider audience - It should have been marketed more along the lines of Hugo Boss' Hugo line, with more or less those price. To sum it up, Navy became nothing but another 'department store' collection, whose marketing principle seemed old and redundant, a lot thanks to the severe competition done by the house founder. Ms. Sander apparently hated this collection and wanted to fold the line as she rightfully didn't believe in it, but it was autonomously run by another team and she had no authority over her own brand anymore, either.

From my understanding, they should reform the mainline completely, make sure the line reflects varying price points - there is no reason why a standardized pair of suit trousers in Italian wool suiting should cost more than 400€ or a cotton poplin shirt more than 300€ - Perhaps this is the problem of the entire luxury goods market that we came accustomed to fairly basic product costing a price it should not.

 

[tricotineacetat]

Their business level is rather large, at that level it's not the die hard fans to guarantee the business, but also pedestrians cashing in, to reach the goal that's deemed as a success for them. How to do so? Hype, isn't it?

No, in the case of Jil Sander, building a hyped business around a designer that probably leads the brand in a direction too far away from the houses' DNA is exactly what gives it the last killing blow.

You have to understand people were willing to spend a lot of money on Jil Sander clothes that were otherwise not much following the fashion mainstream at all - Similar to how Margiela, Helmut Lang or even the Japanese designers work. You buy into an aesthetic that is timeless and whose design is imbued with actual value and depth, and the person that gets that will notice and just turn away once those values are no longer reflected in the product.

Jil Sander was great because her very design was not only 'minimal' for the sake of an aesthetic minimalism but because her clothes were purposeful wardrobe solutions for people leading an active lifestyle.

 

[Pricciao]

Time changes. I think why Jil was successful, it's because there was a long going trend about dressing neat up till Celine hype went calm. There indeed are people relate Jil to some version of Saville Row. But more I feel it's the Balenciaga/Calvin Klein/Jil Sander bunch that really made it great. Their business went down after it faded.
Margiela is able to pull that string, that's great for them. Jil is a different case. I'm not suggesting they should go with everyone else. But their aesthetic is their weakness at the current state of fashion.

 

[Gábor]

Clare Waight Keller in at Givenchy... source: voguerunway instagram