Minimalism with an endless twist

German designer Jil Sander’s stylish minimalism has landed in Bangkok with a bang, with the brand’s collections for men and women now available at its flagship store at Central Embassy.
In Bangkok for the opening, the brand’s chief executive Alessandro Cremonesi explained that the brand has managed to modernise traditional concepts of luxury and elegance by emphasising purity, quality, and the contemporary.
“Purity means maintaining the pureness of the cut, the material and the line. Quality is ensured through manufacturing all Jil Sander products in Italy. This is very important to us. We put a lot of effort into connecting with our manufacturers and fabric suppliers so that they really take care of our product.
“And contemporary means that the design must be in line with current trends but still look good in the future.
“It’s this unconditional dedication to contemporary design combined with innovative materials, top craftsmanship and superb tailoring that give the clothes their exceptional form,” he said.
Set up by Sander is 1973 and run as an independent brand until a 75-per-cent share was acquired by Prada in 1999, the brand travelled through some stormy waters in the early part of the 21st century. Cremonesi pays tribute to the design and creative team for ensuring that the company functioned even without the designer at its head for more than decade. Sander returned to the fold briefly in 2012 but departed again at the end of 2013.
In April, the Jil Sander Group announced the appointment of Rodolfo Paglialunga as new creative director. His women’s Spring/Summer 2015 collection was unveiled last month at Milan’s fashion week in Milan.
The brand made its first appearance in Thailand four years ago with selected items presented in Bangkok’s multi-brand stores.
Cremonesi foresee success for the brand thanks to the growing sophistication of Thai fashionistas. “Thai women are not very different from other segments of the international market. The brand perception is the same but relies more on taste and climate. People are also travelling more. The Bangkok boutique offers a full range of Jil Sander products, including women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, shoes, bags and accessories.”
The women’s fall and winter 2014 collection, now in stock at the new boutique, is designed for lightness and ease, warmth and tenderness. Hues of grapefruit, pomegranate and apricot punctuate a predominantly pale palette of twisted, chalky colour. Fabrics are a melange, resembling concrete injected with off-shades of spearmint, rose and celadon as coloured overlays across the signature Jil Sander camel. The melange carries through to knitwear in cashmere and alpaca. Decoration is subtle and the motifs synonymous with the house. Stripes and rows of flowers are needle-punched into fabric and cut to spiral the body. Some are shattered and rearranged as an abstract pattern on a synthetic varnish or subtly woven into fluid boucle tweed.
Coats and jackets, impeccably crafted, shift and regroup with each movement of the body, adding a sense of fluidity to the silhouette through their fluctuations. Dresses in soft techno jersey or bonded silks are cut on the bias, dissected by sloping seams. A fillip of drape constructed into the waist animates skirts in quilted jersey or basket weave wool. Accessories add emphasis. Rubber is used to reinterpret hallmark Jil Sander handbag shapes: soft zippered sacs sit alongside structured totes, satchels, and the signature JIL bag in black rubber, ignited by flashes of bright python. Shoes are a solid foundation with flat platform soles or a lacquered wedge, mixing calf and snakeskin in brilliant shades of pink, yellow, green and blue.
The men’s collection has a sense of structure, surface movement and colour. Tailoring is applied to every aspect of the design of the wardrobe. The silhouette is neat and coats and boxy jackets are worn with high-waisted tapered trousers. They are paired with crew-neck knits. Parkas have generous but controlled volumes. Knits and blousons sport ergonomic constructions. Patch pockets recur as tailoring gestures.
The colour palette is dense and moody: shades of purple, teal, dark green, anthracite and metropolitan black, with light or dark grey and neutral shades broken by prints and brushed effects. Materials are brushed wool and treated flannel. A sense of chromatic consistency runs through the outfits, expressing clarity and distinctiveness.
Accessories punctuate the image with clear and assertive signs: lace-ups and boots with high lacquered soles and buckle-less belts closed by snaps. Bags combine different worlds using colour as a tactile element: there are oversized duffels with detachable pouches, business briefcases and deconstructed clutches.