Jil Sander is synonymous with the kind of minimalism that defined much of the 1990s, but her story starts in the 1970s, when she first launched her label in Hamburg, Germany, after a stint working in magazines. It may have been a case of waiting for the culture to catch up to her unique point of view, because by the end of the 1980s she had become part of the establishment, eventually going on to sell a majority stake in her label to Prada in 1999 for more than $100 million. Sander exited in 2000, leaving the industry stunned. (Though she later returned in 2003, lasting only two seasons, and then again in 2012, before leaving for good in 2013.) In the years since, she designed a unisex line for Uniqlo, +J.
Now, in a new monograph published by Prestel, Sander looks back at her career, sparing the biographical details and chronology, in favor of ultra-close up images of her work, which highlight how her specific brand of minimalism was not without feminine opulence, sensuality, or indulgence. Sander worked closely on the development of the book with the German journalist Ingeborg Harms and the designer Irma Boom to create a book that also functions as an objet, with special mylar pages that hark back to the designer’s experiments with transparency, but also add an additional tactile pleasure to thumbing through it. The resulting tome is a must-have for any fashion fanatic, as well as an invitation to take a closer look at the world that surrounds us. I chatted with the 80-year-old designer about the process of putting together the book, and the things that inspire her most.
What is your earliest fashion memory?
From very early on, when I could barely talk, I dressed and consulted my family on clothing. The earliest discussions, I remember, revolve around what to wear to special occasions.
You are not an artist necessarily prone to nostalgia; what was the driving force behind putting the book together and why did it now feel like the right time?
To me, it wasn’t so much a backward glance, but a new challenge. I wanted to design a book that gave me pleasure. In preparation of our museum exhibition 2017 in Frankfurt, I realized that our archive material was rich enough for a book. It corroborated that my fashion vision had basically stayed the same over the years. In the book, I wanted to circumvent a biographical chronology. We opted for a more kaleidoscopic presentation and let the imagery whirl around, creating affinities and strong contrasts instead of a timeline. The input of art director Irma Boom was essential for this approach. We used Irma’s experimental, often cropped and zoomed-in optics and constellations as a springboard for our annotations. It turned out to be a refreshing way of pinning down resurfacing themes of my work. The text part is rather poetic, going with the flow.
The first image we see in the book is a glass perfume bottle, why was it important for you to start there?
It is an ad for my first perfume “Woman Pure”—visually stunning, serene, and full of energy. The square container rhymes with the square shape of our book. For “Woman Pure,” the blunt form was innovative in a time when fragrance vials were defined by rather decorative Parisian couture aesthetics. In my design, I often went for geometrical simplicity. Perfume is about essence, and I wanted to suggest right at the beginning, that the book tries to capture an essence, too.
The images in the book are all zoomed-in, is it safe to assume that this is also how you view the world, zoomed-in on the details? Or would you consider yourself to be a more big-picture, world-at-large person?
I like to think big when it comes to campaigns, store architecture, or going public. My fashion language strives to be consistent, and to deliver a clear message. At the same time, I am extremely scrupulous and orderly about details. But I design intuitively, I do not conceptualize the contemporary moment in an intellectual way, I register and feel it. I get easily bored by jaded things and look for alternatives. At heart, I am an optimist, I believe in the energy of change. It attracts me like a magnet, and I feed on it as a designer, looking for innovative materials, fresh proportions, and techniques. The book wants to reflect both the importance of microscopic work and the larger picture. Its rhythm alternates between iconic shapes and a focus on single aspects of tailoring and craft.
One of the lines in the book says “Jil Sander went to the school of nature.” What is the School of Nature to you?
I cherish Nature’s infinite reservoir of moods, especially in my northern country, the fluid change of seasons, weather conditions, color harmonies. Nature taught me subtleness, but also dynamic construction. Clothes, in my view, should be as stable and, yet, resilient as a tree. Nature rarely steps forward; you must discover it. The more you look, the more you see and enjoy. We can’t outpace Nature; it will always overwhelm and stun us.
What is your favorite place in nature?
My English garden, which I started 40 years ago. Since it has the dimensions of a park with color-coded rose sections, an orchard, and a kitchen garden, I like to walk in it, enjoying the flow of the blossoming season and changing perspectives.
What did you learn about your own work when you looked at the finished book? Has it changed or influenced your creative process since then?
Especially as a fashion designer, you forget what you have done. Every collection needs a blank space to get started. Work on the book carried me back to the excitement of past moments, to objectives that guided me and providential solutions. I feel that the book is an expression of that frenzy, when creativity is at its most attentive and every hour counts. I learned that my work has been multivarious and that my design, at the end, has a strong sensual touch. Having revised it all once more, I am confident that my vision of contemporary, cutting-edge understatement has been consistent. Recently, I applied it to different areas of design.
There’s a short text in the book that says:
“Jil Sander’s composure in stressful situations is legendary. She has an unwavering trust in arriving at a coherent and harmonious result, whether at the negotiating table or in the studio. Her pursuit of quality persists until the second-best solution has been refined into the ultimate best. It is this ‘not yet’ that gives her designs the magic.” Can you tell me more about “not yet”?
For as long as I don’t have it, I am restless. It’s almost torture, since my team is stressed, time is running out, we are tired and outworn. All the while I know that my endeavors are nothing until it feels right. I am convinced that the solution, the twist, the step forward can be found. That’s my driving force. I cannot give up. Over the years, my team has learned to share my confidence. In the end, they are as happy as I am, since the final design is a cut above and everybody contributed.
What is the secret of imbuing minimalism with sensuality?
I don’t think of my work as minimalistic. I am not just reducing, I like to start by introducing new material qualities, by trying out unused cuts and proportions. Reductive fitting needs substance to work on and refine. That’s why I prefer to call the desired result purity. If you circumvent the fancy, the repetitive, the fillings, you end up with pure energy. And energy is very sensual, it creates what we deem beautiful. Concepts of beauty change, they are a function of things that lead us forward. Whatever is surprising and new, hits us like a flirt.
