MILAN, Jun 25, 2006/ FW/ --- When fashion houses seek to replace long standing creative directors they are faced with a problem; bearing in mind that the outgoing designer often bears the name of the company, the overriding criterion of selection usually concerns continuity. The ideal situation, for the house at least, would seem to be a seamless transition with no one even noticing that the face had changed.

Often then, young designers find themselves locked in the archives poring over the back catalogue in a desperate attempt to understand the DNA of the brand while in doing so they prejudice the creativity that marked them out as promising in the first place. It’s not enough to be good, you have to be good at being someone else which is a completely different proposition and all too often the strain tells -the resulting compromise proving satisfactory to none of the parties involved.

Before a designer tries to understand the house then, the house has to understand the designer and make its choice accordingly. Easier said than done, yes, but as Raf Simons’ appointment at Jil Sanders proves, a marriage well considered saves a lot of repenting subsequently.

Now with two collections to his name, there has never been any sense that Simmons has sought to imitate his predecessor. Much more than this, he honors her by remaining true to an aesthetic sensibility that is common to both -minimalist, with an emphasis on stimulating modern fabrics and a sober elegance of cut that eschews unnecessary ornament.

Thus, the clean lines of a simple shirt placed the emphasis on the rippling billow created by its square cut while a plain white pullover was embellished by the texture of the knit around the shoulder. Both of these features bear the Simons hallmark and will be familiar to fans of the designer’s eponymous collections but what was less expected was the use of color; vibrant blues, oranges and red’s livening up the usual palette of black, white and grey.

With no visible accessories on show and the same pair of shoes throughout, not even a vivid color scheme could detract from confident details such as pockets cut into the trousers’ side seams or suit jackets which wavered between single and double breasted fronts.

Functional, elegant and modern could all then be words lifted from the Sanders heritage, and with Simons applying his own philosophy, her spirit still lives in the house that bears her name.

Jil Sander

Jil Sander

Jil Sander

Jil Sander