Jil Sander Departing Namesake Brand for the Third Time

[Scott]

There are so many things in this world to feel genuine sadness for-- even within the fashion industry. Sadness for not being able to wear new designs from your favorite designers really shouldn't be one of them.

No one can touch Jil while she is still around and fully competent as a designer, so anyone filling in for her will be-- and as shown by Raf, has been, lesser than her.

I think Jil will return to fashion in time. I hope she'll do it independent of her namesake so that it's genuinely all hers. I hope to see her be more like Alaia in her return. Judging by her last few collections, she still has it in her-- although the last collection looks very much rushed and definitely not her at her most thoughtful best.

for me the sadness is seeing jil departing again especially so soon after just returning and being sorely missed on the scene for those years prior. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. when you're missing those real and authentic voices with a real sense of integrity in a medium that's becoming depleted by the minute and being replaced with poseurs,wannabes,ego-maniacs and redundants,it makes you realize how supremely important they are and have been. and for me jil is certainly one of those people. so it's a blow to many who are faithful.

but like you i do hope she makes a return in her own right….start another company…perhaps take the label she utilised at uniqlo and apply it to her own business.

 

[Thefrenchy]

I'm worried for the future of the brand as I feel that only very few people can live up to the expectation... I can't imagine Jil Sander as a "weak" brand... I wonder how the core customers will react to the change if they hand up picking some unknown person who produces average work...

 

[Phuel]

for me the sadness is seeing jil departing again especially so soon after just returning and being sorely missed on the scene for those years prior. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. when you're missing those real and authentic voices with a real sense of integrity in a medium that's becoming depleted by the minute and being replaced with poseurs,wannabes,ego-maniacs and redundants,it makes you realize how supremely important they are and have been. and for me jil is certainly one of those people. so it's a blow to many who are faithful.

but like you i do hope she makes a return in her own right….start another company…perhaps take the label she utilised at uniqlo and apply it to her own business.

Thanks Scott for your perspective as a Jil-devotee. I appreciate your passion to champion designers with an individual voice, the industry certainly needs more of them; as it seems the loud, gimmicky, corporate types seem to be getting all the attention, and defining what high fashion is.

And this is a fashion forum after all, so I don't expect people to be any less passionate about the subject, but I always try to remind myself that high fashion is such a huge privilege, and as much as I do adore it and some of the talents that are always inspiring, I can easily live without these luxuries and still have a very full life. It is too bad she has left, again... but she's still around, and fully competent, and I do have faith the woman will return to what she loves doing best-- under whatever name, she's still the only Jil Sander.

 

[vandekamp]

I'm worried for the future of the brand as I feel that only very few people can live up to the expectation... I can't imagine Jil Sander as a "weak" brand... I wonder how the core customers will react to the change if they hand up picking some unknown person who produces average work...

Agreed. It makes me scared for the brand.

 

[Littleathquakes]

I think that's common nowadays...I mean it seems like every week there's a new creative director somewhere. I got use to Raf's aesthetics at JS so I can't really say I'm afraid for the brand. He claims to not be a minimalist but that's all I see in his designs and now that's what I think of when I hear JS. So unless the new person Lohans it, I wouldn't be too concerned. The quality will always be there, just the design will change.

 

[donyan]

This is such sad news. I loved the last two collections, and I felt that she was just getting back into the swing of things.

 

[Morphe]

This might sound crazy but I'd like to see Narciso Rodriguez as a contender to take over Jil's place now.

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

^that would be perfect

 

[Scott]

i dunno…narciso is good at a simple aesthete but for me it's mostly facade. i find his work to be pretty mediocre for what he would have to live up to here. the nuance and those subtle complexes is what jil for me really was known for. also,i'd be afraid he'd turn everything into some red carpet ready celebrity circus instead of a brand that people turn to for timelessness.

 

[Morphe]

^Are we taking about the same designer? IMO Jil Sander ain't that spectacularly original either.

 

[Creative]

Jil Sander is one of the most original designers of these past three decades. Being original doesn't mean sending one hundread incoherent ideas down the runway à la Raf Simons or creating a circus out of a fashion show à la McQueen. Sometimes it lies beneath the construction of the garment.

 

[Scott]

if you ever had the pleasure of seeing jil's work up close and personal,as i said here previously,there's a reason why season after season she stood alongside the likes of yohji,helmut,MM and dries van noten. she was known for her innovative cutting techniques….she had a beautiful knack for volume,something that only could rival yohji or demeulemeester. her work was quiet on the surface but beneath that a craftsperson's paradise,imo.

truth be told,the only designer i've seen ever who maintains very similar practices and principles as jil is veronique branquinho….slightly more feminine but the essence is still highly kindred.

i'm not going to sit here and bash raf simons though because i do feel he has that ability,i just think he got caught up in the fashion side of everything by making statements instead of allowing his technical ability to speak for him.

 

[tricotineacetat]

I must say I have to take back on my previous statement about Veronique Branquinho as a possible good fit to at Jil Sander. while she initially shares a similar 'style', I doubt she would bring in the necessary refinement in cut and construction - something that Narciso Rodriguez actually has - to the table.

In order for the house to make successful transition from the Jil Sander-lead fashion house to Jil Sander, the fashion brand existing beyond her tenureship, I think some inevitable changes of direction will be necessary - *especially* because a befitting heir that could continue in Jil's way is not in place. I do believe Narciso Rodriguez has great expertise as a dress maker and he's also considerably improved his tailoring skills over the past years, offering more separates in his own collection. Jil Sander could really make do with a designer that can excel in both categories.

 

[Scott]

^i dunno though tricot,remember VB's suits…her trousers? she also has sublime dress-making skills for which JS was terribly underrated at. also,for me JS was all about signatures….staples….suits,trousers,shirting,timeless,seasonless dresses….all things VB are brilliant at herself. i feel narciso can be a bit same-y in a of-the-moment "fashion" sense than making timeless classics that maintain their resonance for years.

i also can't forget his otherwise forgettable tenure at loewe…i just don't think he has the qualities to push JS in a new direction.

 

[rip_ian curtis]

One thing that's also notable in Jils case is that her designs never referenced style from the past in a romantic vintage way or in the sense of retro... That is the reason why I don't see Veronique as a perfect successor, as her style often reminds me of something retro - like you could see some of the clothes in old photographs she probably researched. To me Jil was always about clothes of today and tomorrow, meaning they were hard to place in a historical context.

 

[Scott]

and that's what i was saying….obviously the two have different points of view but when you get down to those core basics of what drives their work,branquinho does have a lot of those qualities. branquinho was never all lace blouses and flowy skirts….that's her late 90's aesthetic and it's evolved and matured quite a lot since then.

 

[tricotineacetat]

^i dunno though tricot,remember VB's suits…her trousers? she also has sublime dress-making skills for which JS was terribly underrated at. also,for me JS was all about signatures….staples….suits,trousers,shirting,timeless,seasonless dresses….all things VB are brilliant at herself. i feel narciso can be a bit same-y in a of-the-moment "fashion" sense than making timeless classics that maintain their resonance for years.

i also can't forget his otherwise forgettable tenure at loewe…i just don't think he has the qualities to push JS in a new direction.

Yes, but let's face it, that clinical, white shirt, basic black suit approach probably wouldn't lure any new customers in for Jil Sander, it needed an update and you can really see that in the woman herself not really putting that on emphasize anymore in her collection - Have a look at her offering in the stores and on the runway, it does look much more 'fashion' than it ever used to, and I see this totally as a good thing as Jil Sander of the late 90ies tended to look very 'department store' in the hands of the wrong buyers.

I think the company itself has a very difficult positioning at the moment. As it was mentioned earlier in the press, a lot of other fashion houses and even the high street have emulated some of her ideas (look at COS for that), she even proved it herself with +J that her sophisticated eye for tailoring could be translated on the lower end tier of the market with success. The expression of purity that Jil Sander needs shouldn't be the staples of the 90ies but something clearly more 'designed' and engineered, yet remain harmonic and timeless in validity.

A lot of younger generation designers referencing Jil Sander's work tend to do so in an exaggeratedly monastic, asexual way. The woman herself has a hand at creating a sense of effortless, fragile sensuality with the most humble of expressions - That requires for a very assured hand that I don't really think Véronique Branquinho really has.

Perhaps it would be good to look for an experienced Japanese-trained designer? Naoki Takizawa could be a good fit, or even Koji Nagano, who was for over 10 years head of the Yohji Yamamoto Femme and Y's studio (in the mid-nineties to mid 2000's).

 

[CharlottefromCA]

I have to laugh at myself because when I saw people praising "VB" and her cutting skill I thought for 2-3 seconds VB stood for Victoria Beckham... needless to say I was.. confused

 

[Scott]

of course,it needs to be said too this is all for the sake of discussion because i doubt very much at this point VB would be inclined to design JS since she's just returned this year with a lucrative deal with gibo.

now naoki takizawa we can totally agree would be a wonderful fit because of his own design aesthetic but also because he has experience working with JS at uniqlo. koji nagano would be excellent as well. i always kind of felt that sense of purity was often aligned with what yohji's approach was about so maybe somebody from YY would be a great fit for JS. that person would completely understand the language she spoke with her work.

 

[Zazie]

Lutz is to me the absolutely right designer for Jil Sander, besides Hussein Chalayan. I'm still buying fashion, but impeccably thought out fashion,like JS's first come back collection.

I'm offended that my position was interpreted as "sad because I can no longer wear Jil's designs". There are plenty of other designers' clothes I could wear, and when designers like Martin Margiela are gone, I still have clothes to wear. My sadness at these fashion greats leaving is that they're simply fashion greats and their contribution is invaluable and irreplaceable.