Lucie and Luke Meier are the latest designers looking to what seems to be the theme of the season. As Lucie explained: “We were thinking of the core and the base of Jil Sander, which is obviously the white shirt and the suit. It’s the uniform. So we were working with this concept of uniform and trying to play with it.”
Half-obscured under a voluminous gray-and-cream check mesh-knit cardigan in the Sander showroom was a version of that emblematic starting point: a slim-cut, narrow-shouldered, high-revered, notch-lapeled, tailored black jacket over a plain white shirt. Under it was one of several skorts in this collection. From the waist up, and minus the knit, it was a touching flashback.
The Meiers moved on by alighting upon several uniform subsets while maintaining a consistently wide and substantial silhouette heaped with layering. A “monastic” (as Lucie rightly put it) black cashmere shirt and pant uniform was topped with a sailor collar. High-neck white shirting featured gun flaps, and there were fishermen’s hats. A very fine section of garment-dyed, washed-khaki polyamide/urethane collarless parkas, bombers, pullover shirts, and shorts took their starting point from military pilot jumpsuits. The checks, said Luke, were from the idea of team sports. Less uniform-y but interestingly made and compellingly colored were the long knit intarsia sweaters in irregular patches of mohair, cotton, and wool. The sneakers and boots were heavy and broad-soled to anchor the bigness of the silhouettes, but the attractive backpacks were as light as you like, cut in the same poly-blend as the parkas.
As last season, there was mood music with this collection via a film of some models wearing it in some rather sadly drab north-of-Milan hinterland. This collection, the military section especially, featured some interesting takes on uniform well worth volunteering for.
