Grand Audio Car Visual: Jil Sander Spring 2009

Jil Sander Clears the Runway
By CATHY HORYN

Mr. Simons’s collection for Jil Sander was incredibly gratifying; devouring, too. It made everything else look old. He might have risked something using a Man Ray photograph as a backdrop, since it signifies modernity. What if his collection was a pale imitation, another fashion game?

It was not. Mr. Simons used panels of draped fringe against dark wool crepe, so that it seemed less an adornment than a form of transparency, a play of light. The silhouette was always super lean, yet easy to wear. A fringe-paneled black dress appeared with leggings and sharp black suede platforms. That was the dominant idea. But there were lightweight wool jackets with deep overlapping panels, and some of the trim jackets (shown with shorts) had the feminine surprise of a draped back.

Everything was exceedingly well done: balanced, desirable, new. And the clothes were connected to the modernity of Mr. Simons’s men’s show in July. Like art or poetry, clothes can inform your understanding of things, change your eye. But the method can’t be faked.

On the Runway
By Cathy Horyn
I think it’s fair to say that people left the Jil Sander show this morning feeling a little high. At one point I said to Michael Roberts, probably around the time I was stuffing cookies in my mouth before the Bottega Veneta show, that we might want to replay Simons’ show in the course of the day, if we could of course. Just rewind the tape and see it again.

The problem with the still pictures from the show is that they don’t properly capture the glossy contrast of the fringe against the matte ground of a wool crepe dress or the details of the back of an outfit. A number of outfits appeared to be a rather sober jacket in the front, and something more surprising and feminine in the back—a drape, for instance, or an opening finished with black fringe to the hem of the jacket. It’s hard to explain, in fact, the effect of the fringe. On the first slim dress, with leggings and those black platforms with the whirling straps of suede around the ankles, the fringe was so incorporated into the cut and movement of the dress that it enhanced the body. I thought of the body-conscious dresses, the mummy dresses, that Alaia did in the 80s. Simons’ dresses were different, more delicate, but they were also about the body and movement. So particular and attractive.

There were other things going on in the collection, as many of you have noted in your posts. The jackets with the deep, slightly overlapping panels (shown with trim shorts), were another key look. And I loved the way this show seemed to talk, if that’s the right word, to Simons’ men’s show in July, which had the scuba shorts and the stripped-down tailoring.

Tim Blanks asked me after the show about the 1920s thing, the flapper fringe and the reference to Man Ray. (Two identical Man Ray images appeared as a backdrop and then dissolved when the show started.) The 20s reference was spelled out in the press notes, which I hadn’t read. Anyway, I didn’t even think about that during the show.

I guess most of us admire the fact that Simons offered up some very practical solutions to contemporary dressing—through simple but ingenious cutting, his choice of light-weight fabrics—and still left us enthralled by his creativity and imagination. Alber Elbaz strives to do the same thing. So does Alaia. Their approach is simple and direct, their stuff is honest and individually minded. We know it’s unanswerably contemporary. And no dressmaker-y sleeves, etc. I had an interesting talk the other day with Karl Templer, the stylist, and he wondered about all these “image for image” clothes we’re seeing now on the runways, clothes that are just for pictures. It’s becoming a weird pattern.

As Modern as Tomorrow
By Cathy Horyn

A great Jil Sander show today. I’ll write more later, but Raf Simon’s super-lean show and modern collection featured a kind of 1920s silhouette with insets of viscose fringe down the front or side of slim dresses and tunics worn with leggings. You would imagine that some of the fringe and wool crepe dresses were like wearing water…

Man Ray, Africa, the 20s—those were the vague inspirations in what is probably Simons’ best collection for Jil Sander. I personally loved the way this show communicated with his own men’s wear show from July, with those minimal jackets and biker-type shorts. There’s a lot to say about Simons’ huge push forward. The sense of decoration (the glossy fringe, the silver earrings that resemble spears with a cluster of diamonds), the combination of feminine draping on a light-weight jacket, everything intelligible and refined. He had the audience riveted. The closing music was “Camille’s Theme” from the film “Le Mepris.” Gorgeous.

Yulia Kharlapanova