Raf Simons brought a big blast of fashion to the
Jil Sander runway today, a firmly modernist view expressed in almost every detail.
The white-washed geometric set, with raised platform seating and sunken areas filled in with brightly colored pebbles, was based on the 1958 comedy “Mon Oncle,” by Jacques Tati, in which a French family lives in an ultramodern house in an otherwise traditional neighborhood. Perhaps that is a metaphor for Jil Sander’s place in fashion since Mr. Simons took over about five years ago.
His aim this season was to consider a key element of Jil Sander’s minimalist fashion — the white cotton shirt — and then break away from its pure form. In a sense, he has been working up to this approach over the past few seasons, beginning with his breakout spring 2011 show based on classic haute couture shapes, yet done in neon-bright synthetics that related to street wear and comfort.
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| Giuseppe Cacace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Another starting point this season was how women treat themselves in a beauty salon, the positive aspect of caring for oneself in an atmosphere of other women. The third element expressed in the show was marriage — the closing long dresses in white cotton that again referred to the basic white shirt.
Those were the main ideas that Mr. Simons and his team considered at the start of the design process. Their interpretations were gorgeously and surprisingly expansive.
Some guests sensed a cinematic mood, perhaps because some of the music came from French films of the 1960s, and also included Serge Gainsbourg’s “Love on the Beat.” One person said, “Monaco,” maybe thinking of Grace Kelly because of the somber wedding dresses. Certainly the silhouette was generally lean and graceful, with mid-calf skirts with a deep vent in the back (a navy version was worn with a sleeveless top in a simplified paisley print). A group of stark white dresses and coat dresses had the calm, clinical aura of a spa, along with an erotic undercurrent.
This may have been Mr. Simons’s sexiest collection for Jil, with white or light blue gingham shorts worn with matching nipped-waist jackets, and some jackets with deep, squared-off openings in the front.
The strictness of the lines, the polished sophistication of mid-calf dresses in dark green and rose, also added to the sexual tension. My personal favorite was the green dress, with a lean fit, short sleeves and a deep V-back with a pair of jeweled dress clips at the front. Also beautiful and simple was a navy dress with a matching jacket fastened to the front of the dress by two off-center rows of buttons, so that it appeared to be a one-piece outfit. Knits were based on Picasso’s ceramics, a Simons ode to modernism.
There were mid-heel patent-leather pumps and boots with lattice panels. Clutches were as small and neat as a book, and edged in silver. Working with Mr. Simons for the first time, the milliner Stephen Jones created cotton ski caps with net veils. Mr. Simons said his goal was to make clothes that were not only new and different but could also be imagined in the street. He achieved that.
source:
By CATHY HORYN
Giuseppe Cacace/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA model displayed a creation Saturday as part of Jil Sander’s spring 2012 collection.
