“I like the obsessive commitment that the development of nothing requires” : this quote, mysterious and cerebral, buried among the 320 pages of Jil Sander by Jil Sander, is perhaps the most important. Delving into the beautiful book, published in English and edited by the German designer herself, as discreet in the media as she is revered by some, helps to capture all the dimensions of her refined and precise fashion.
There is no problem with this. No logo or slogan apparent. Very few decorative elements. And this so that all visual attention is focused on the ritual colors (white, black, navy blue, crimson red, butter yellow), on the clean or relaxed cuts (dresses with openwork graphics, openwork suits) and on the carefully chosen materials. care (German synthetics, Italian silks). , Indian cottons, Chinese cashmeres).
With her compatriot, the journalist Ingeborg Harms, who writes informed and easily accessible texts, Jil Sander immersed herself in her archives, from her beginnings as a designer in 1973, after a few years in fashion journalism. This selection of diverse images (catwalk photos, portraits of her at all ages, behind-the-scenes photos, etc.) was entrusted to the Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom, who put them together by theme (ready-to-wear, cosmetics, architecture of stores). …) but also according to a “kaleidoscope” subjective, “visual constellations”.
Subtle refinement
Sometimes processed as a negative, many photographs have been cropped to enlarge an element. To show the reader how Jil Sander’s fashion pays attention to detail. A Mao collar, origami-style pleats, the gathered elastic of a high-waisted skirt, the geometric stitching of a black leather dress, the carefully placed patch pockets of a suede jacket, the buttons of a linen shirt undone beneath the belly button. …So many signs of subtle refinement – this famous “nothing” very well thought out – but that will be sensitive to whoever wears or looks at the garment. In this, Ingeborg Harms pointedly points out, there exists between Jil Sander and his followers “a silent pact”, the one that can only be tied by trying it on.
From the preface, its almost fetishistic scheme is theorized by the historical context. “Looking back, I understand that my childhood in Hamburg influenced me. I witnessed a democratic reconstruction,” says Jil Sander, born in Germany in 1943, in a parallel between her simple and functional approach and her country’s post-war renaissance. It is also through artistic correspondences that the book proposes to identify his work: those with the straight lines of the Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933), with the economy of means of the German sculptor Ulrich Rückriem (born in 1938) or with the obsession by the spiral of the American visual artist Richard Serra (1938-2024).
You have 34.17% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
