The exacting vision that Lucie and Luke Meier have brought to Jil Sander is softening with time. Relaxing into their roles after three years as creative directors, they now use the house codes with the ease that comes from owning them—as the saying goes, you can break the rules only if you know the rules well.
Menswear is their natural territory: Their design principles align with the classic tailoring techniques that are essential in this category. “We really appreciate the technical aspect of the construction that goes into proper menswear-making,” Luke said during a showroom appointment (a rather enjoyable experience after the digital overload we’ve been all exposed to). “But I think that we’ve played with those ‘foundations’ our own way, proposing something different, not quite as rigid and formal but still very properly done.” Lucie chimed in: “Especially in the context of right now, we wanted to soften things a bit, introducing a friendlier, more tactile feel to our design.”
As is often the case with the Meiers, the collection bridged opposites: rigidity and suppleness, geometry and sensitivity, touch and sight. Their rigorous aesthetic finds is enlivened by delicate details. Take for example, the sleeves of a sharp-cut, angular coat in Japanese wool that can be shortened or detached by gently twisting a small metal loop ring—utilitarian in purpose, but looking like a tiny piece of jewelry. Elsewhere, the severe, elegant lines of elongated blazers, often worn over apron tops, are gently interrupted by the soft intervention of a foulard, twisted and knotted nonchalantly at the waist, or around the neck.
Tactility and abstraction found a middle ground in beautifully textured knitwear, where raw-cotton surfaces were veiled with a thin layer of cotton voile stitched onto the crocheted structure, expressing modesty and reserve.
Detachable collars, humongous canvas totes, toolbox waistbags, and patches stitched onto knitted tops were all printed with evocative messaging about nature. “There’s a little bit of text around,” mused Luke. Words like Yellow Moon, Blue Windows Behind the Stars, and Homegrown alluded “to an idea of nature’s bounty [that] we were kind of missing in lockdown.” Actually, the world looked magnificent outside our quarantined homes—the sky bluer, nature more powerful and dense. “Let’s hope that people will look around a little more, appreciate the immediate environment we’re in,” reflected Luke. “You probably want people to be a little more sensitive, you want them to notice something, you want them to feel what surrounds them. To think a bit more and more deeply.”
