JIL SANDER NAVY TO LAUNCH IN SPRING 2011

There’s nothing quite like Jil Sander as designed by Raf Simons. While I can appreciate the New Look-esque aesthetic and impeccably cut and tailored pantsuits, blouses, and coats that Jil Sander designed while still at her namesake label, Simons has been able to take Sander’s minimalist signature aesthetic – with all the sumptuous fabrics that they’ve always entailed – and infuse a modern, painterly, and sculptural feel to his work at the label.

This comes as little surprise, given that Simons was exposed, early on in his career, to the work of Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier. Ironically, when Jil Sander was initially established, the brand was seen as an alternative to the flash of the likes of Gaultier and Margiela, but it seems that Simons has been able to extrapolate the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, as we all know, the kind of craftsmanship and detail that go into Jil Sander make for very high prices. Come Spring 2011, however, a long overdue lower priced line, Jil Sander Navy will be launched.

 
 
The German-born Sander has always been against developing a secondary line (though she has teamed with Uniqlo, who is the first client of the fashion consultancy that she founded in early 2009). Given the increasing popularity of the Sander line and the fact that Sander herself is no longer involved with the brand, the extension seems like natural step that will likely attract a slew of new, devoted followers.  
 
 
The hope is that the lower-price brand extension will bring in a younger demographic with its sporty designs that still, despite their lower prices (likely starting in the low hundreds, as it will be priced 40 percent below the luxury line), will be manufactured from top quality fabrics (among them innovative cottons and high-performance techno fabrics). According to Jil Sander’s chief executive officer, the line will “complement the pre-collections and the runway offering.”

Navy will consist of trench coats, blouson jackets, lightweight jersey pieces, knitwear, T-shirts, shirts, dresses, pants, skirts, jackets, jeans, as well as handbags, footwear, and belts.  Expect abstract prints to be a big part of the collection.

Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.

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