Maybe it’s because they’ve rounded year five at the brand, but this felt like a more personal collection than usual for Luke and Lucie Meier at Jil Sander. “We kind of looked back at our formative years, the ’90s and 2000s,” said Lucie. “We were thinking about how the outlook was so positive and exciting, thinking about technology coming into our lives. Now the positivity about the future is more difficult to hold up.” Luke interjected: “It’s always a bit rose-tinted, the past, but the one resounding element here was that there was this openness to kind of cross contaminate things.”
The first look made it clear that they no longer feel obliged to stick to the codes established by the German minimalist who founded the brand. It was a black and white leather motorcycle jacket, a logo embossed vertically down the front placket, with matching cropped pants reinforced at the knees like racing uniforms. Later on, a heavily pocketed vest worn by the model Maggie Mauer looked like it could’ve been lifted from Luke’s street-wear inflected men’s label OAMC.
Jil Sander wouldn’t recognize much of the tailoring, but in a season of samey pantsuits, the Meiers’ streamlined, zip-front jackets and expandable trousers—worn with the zippers that extended down both legs undone, for an even bigger silhouette—were a fresh take.
Bjork’s love song “All Neon Like” soundtracked the show, and her eccentricities sparked some of the ideas here, like the pretty degradé floral print dresses that were paired with nubby-soled sneaker boots. It was good to see he Meiers exercising their individuality, whether that was in the form of an airy, generously cut parachute dress embellished with crushed metal flowers or tunics and tees digitally printed and jacquarded with fruits and bonbons. Breaking free is a better way to describe those oversized cherries. “We wanted things that felt a bit uplifting,” Luke explained, “simple and positive.” Bags were stamped with more fruit, like sweet tins. “It’s an invitation,” he said.
