Lucie and Luke Meier have nestled into a groove at Jil Sander. Backstage talk about the house founder’s legacy and whether or not the Meiers do it due diligence seems beside the point. Shoppers have shorter memories than fashion editors, and the duo’s Jil clothes have the look of now.
Tonight’s show was dramatically staged, with wooden chairs arranged in a round-edge rectangle in the center of the runway. The models walked the perimeter and took their seats. Backstage Lucie and Luke talked about capturing movement and emotion, and the sense of stillness the models inhabited set off both. More broadly (and like other bigger-name brands), the Jil designers understand the limitations of the runway; up and back a catwalk feels not enough to justify the work that goes into these collections. Graceful staging cast these clothes in a flattering light. They’re not noisy or brash or made for Instagram. The Meiers practice a more considered sort of fashion, one that puts primacy on subtlety. They work in a fairly narrow color palette—black and white or ivory, a range of neutrals, and only the odd bright red—preferring to convey luxury either through surface detail or texture.
Purity, not minimalism, is the way they describe their aesthetic. Which is fair considering the workmanship that goes into the silk fringing and the chenille knitting and the extensive pleating we saw here. A botanical print erred on the anonymous side. The most compelling pieces were the ones that had a substance to the hand, be that a robe coat in a looped bouclé or blanket dresses for evening that encircled the shoulders in fuzzy wool. That silky black chenille keeps coming back to mind. These are elegant, smart-woman clothes designed not to challenge but to flatter. There are eager customers for that, and more and more it is the Meiers that are capturing their attention.