Clearly refreshed by the 3-year hiatus that ended with her spring 2004 collection, Jil Sander delivered a fall show that cut through the mixed-up flavors of current fashion like a palate-cleansing sorbet. Her new contribution is a gentler, less conceptual approach that embraces the desire for prettiness as well as coolly cut streetwear.
Sander offered a confident, contemporary parallel to mainstream fashion s current ladylike agenda, showing amazingly cut pea jackets, lean pants, tweed princess coats, and A-line skirts. The effect was simple and sophisticated, thanks as always to the judicious manipulation of quietly luxurious fabric. Sander s customers have always trusted her to dispel the nightmare complications of getting dressed for a busy day and now they have an equally happy one-step solution for great eveningwear: Put on her strapless, understated cream dress and—sans jewellery, furs, accessories, or fuss—you will turn heads like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn in a room full of gussied-up matrons.
Sander s comeback is proving the true value of personal, meticulously evolved design skills to the integrity of a brand. There is a clear difference between what we see now (the infinite care taken to mold the seaming and frame the stand of a collar in a herringbone tweed coat, for instance) and the generalized merchandising drive that prevailed in her absence. There s nothing intellectual about it, either: Countless women will relate to the easy simplicity of pairing a sweater with a black fan-pleated skirt, with a flash of silver in the front, or running off to work in a neat white half-belted trench. Sander s loyal customers are already back in droves: With this collection they re likely to be joined by a younger generation, shopping shoulder to shoulder.
