Jil Sander S/S 2019 Milan Fashion Week Women’s

Scene setting: German label Jil Sander is renowned for its assured minimalism. It’s a theme that creative directors Luke and Lucie Meier – now in their third runway season for the brand – have drawn on and saluted since they joined the house in April 2017. This season they swapped the stark outdoor spaces they’ve preferred as show locations for something a little warmer and verdant: an old factory space lined with wooden chairs and lush, mossy vegetation. On a hot September day, the greenhouse scene surrounded guests with plants and trailing blooms, with shrubs even sprouting through cracked tiles in the runway’s floor.

Mood board: MFW is getting back to nature. Before Sander’s show, Brunello Cucinelli presented a collection of eco-inspired pieces, while this Sunday, the Green Carpet Awards sees its second iteration. The Meier’s used natural fibre fabrics and untreated leathers and canvasses in their triumphant collection of uniform-inspired designs. Pieces in organic hues, riffing on work wear, school silhouettes and dancers attire. There were boxy Mandarin collar shirts with protruding cuffs, medical scrubs-like shirts and flowing trousers, sporty ribbed knits that clung to the body, and deconstructed tuxedo jackets worn backwards as dresses. The silhouettes were modern and yet not without magic, sleek, finely constructed and with a close attention to detail essential for longtime Sander fans.

Finishing touches: In interviews Luke and Lucie Meier have pointed out that they’re keen to bring not a ‘minimalism’ but a ‘purity’ to Jil Sander. Their S/S 2019 offering brought a new warmth to the brand, seen in figurative nude pencil drawings emblazoned across knitwear, and embossed onto the inners of soft foldable clutch bags. The duo’s pillow bags and blankets were a big hit last season, and for spring they refined their accessory offering further with circular ‘Sombrero’ bags, boxy doctor’s bags and minaudières. Like the leafy shrubs growing through the runway of the Meier’s show space, the collection was a sure and confident symbol of their growth.