Essential Read

Jil Sander co-curated her first solo exhibition, “Present Tense,” a multimedia retrospective of nearly 60 installations at Frankfurt’s Museum for Applied Art in 2017. Seven years later, the designer is looking back at her career through her monograph, Jil Sander by Jil Sander, which will be available to U.S. readers starting this month. Elegant and characteristically sedate, it depicts the conviction with which Sander has made her name since 1968. In working closely with Sander, graphic designer Irma Boom designed the book, with scholar Ingeborg Harms as scribe. This volume captures the vision born out of and sustained by one of the most consistent, polished designers working—something Sander hopes will be a testament to “modern fashion in a time when notions of avant-garde have almost been forgotten.”

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A mere glance at the monograph’s images tells of Sander’s ascension to becoming Germany’s “Queen of Less.” Along with early ‘90s editorials by the photographer Peter Lindberg, a sincere, gently piercing self-portrait offers an intimate view of the notoriously press-averse founder. The appearance of Sander’s men’s and women’s collections underscores her singular aesthetic and spotlights another adjective often used to describe it by the fashion cognoscenti: pure.

Julian Randall: What inspired you to take on a book at this point in your career?

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Jil Sander: When I organized our archives when we prepared the Jil Sander museum exhibition in 2017 in Frankfurt, it became clear that the rich material would make an interesting book. We worked for almost two years on the book. Such work cannot be done between collections. 

JR: The monograph is filled with visuals that capture your work quite elegantly. How did you decide which ones would be featured? What about what to leave out? 

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JS: Irma Boom sat next to me for long sessions, inspecting the archive and listening to my explanations. Her playful sense of contrasts and constellations helped me choose the book’s content. Since she likes to wok with zoom-ins and picture-cropping and I wanted to highlight details, we were on the same wavelength. We sat for a lively, alternating rhythm of close-ups and more iconic shots, filling the whole page with color and information. Now that the book is printed, I find lots of things that could have been included. But the object was not encyclopedic, but more an invitation to join me in the making. I wanted to give the reader a first-row seat and a raw perspective, as in a fashion show.

‍JR: What image has the most personal significance to you?

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JS: Everything in the book is personally significant. Each photo reminds me of meticulous fitting sessions and my joy when results started to emerge. I am moved by the wide radius of the design work we did without losing sight of the vision. 

JR: Tell me about some of the unanticipated challenges you experienced.

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JS: Mainly, that such a book is a collaboration. It took time to align our ideas.

JR: What are you hoping fans of your work get out of the book?

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JS: I hope to confirm their belief in modern fashion in a time when notions of avant-garde have almost been forgotten, and inspire people to ask for contemporary solutions. Most of all, the book is meant as a reflection of an optimistic age in culture.

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JR: Your Uniqlo collaboration was a big deal. What did that moment mean for you, and why give it real estate in Jil Sander by Jil Sander?

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JS: The collaboration came at the right moment. The fashion world had sobered; sports and utility wear were on the rise. I felt that these practical fashions needed a second look. There was room to infuse them with more luxurious details like state-of-the-art materials, three-dimensional cuts, attractive tailoring and cool proportions. Uniqlo was the right place to do that, especially since the company had worldwide distribution, reached many customers, and could make a difference in what the High Street market should be allowed to expect from basics. It was a pleasure to introduce the values I had cultivated in the premium brand Jil Sander to a large, democratic audience. The +J collections were true to my vision of high-quality and cutting-edge design. I felt that the book should reflect our adventure to translate luxury fashion standards to a large, less elite market.

JR: You feature the Jil Sander Paris flagship store a few times: its exterior and interior. Why is it so special?  

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JS: When we acquired the building on Avenue Montaigne for one of our first flagship stores, the couture stores on that famous fashion strip seemed old-fashioned to me. They had an intimate boutique character which no longer reflected our age. It was a major, time-consuming project to come up with a more modern solution. We began by raising the whole ground floor structure, lifting the facade, and creating an atrium. With an eye-catching spiral staircase, we opened the welcoming space onto the upper floor and streamlined the interior for an uncluttered view of the collection. Inside, we chose high-quality glass and metals for the furniture. They had a strong presence in themselves, so, instead of burying them in decorative elements, we let them speak for themselves. This project taught me—among other things—that the principles I follow in fashion are of value in architecture, too.

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JR: There’s a backstage photo from your Spring/Summer 1999 men’s show, just two years after you started designing menswear. What was the energy in the air? And looking back, how do you reflect on that day?

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JS: I can’t remember that specific day. The countdown to a runway show is full of frenzy, so many things must be decided and taken care of at once. But I do remember the general atmosphere: everyone was concentrated. The models, too. I thought of them as my larger family.

JR: Your fragrances Woman Pure and Woman III show up on the pages, too. How do they fit into the Jil Sander world?

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JS: Let’s take the opening shot of the Woman Pure bottle. It was my first perfume—and a statement. I circumvented the prevailing aesthetics of high-class French perfumes, which were packaged with a lot of nostalgia and an air of mystery. I dreamt of a light fragrance in a modern setting and came up with a frosted square. This uncompromising, geometric shape related perfectly to my concept of fashion as a reduction to the essential.

JR: How might the book be illustrative of yourself as a person as well as Jil Sander the brand?

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JS: The book introduces readers to my vision of fashion and the many challenges I faced in making it real. It also speaks of my past brand building and an optimistic period in history when everything seemed possible.

JR: Do you have other retrospective projects on the horizon?

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JS: Not a retrospective, but another project which I can’t yet disclose.

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