30 fashion designers you should know... #17

JIL SANDER

The first step toward realizing a vision: getting rid of German names. Heidemarie Jiline Sander easily became Jil Sander, experienced textile engineer, and openened her first fashion boutique 1968 in Hamburg (at the age of 25). At first, the cool blonde German ordered exclusively fashion from Paris, when in 1973 she released her first collection. The theme: self-confident minimalism. Her debut at Paris Fashion Week in 1975 was badly ignored by the press- but Jil Sander was not to be deterred. She moved to Milan, stayed loyal to her style until justified by success. Jil Sander founded her fashion house in 1978 and achieved high demand from the mid-eighties on. Women took over managerial roles in business and got uniformed in Jil Sander's perfectly cut pantsuits, neutral colors, slender trench coats. The money she made was promptly invested in huge flagship stores, like in Tokyo and New York. The idea of simplicity as luxury took hold. The main problems began in 1999, when Jil Sander sold the majorty of her shares to the Prada Group and just didn't got the new company's strategy. She parted ways with the Italian luxury group and made a clean break in 2004, after returning as head designer in 2003. For nearly six years Jil Sander gave up business, when in 2009 she had her big comeback as the new creative director of the Japanese fashion chain Uniqlo. Her present aim: "to incorporate first-class quality in a brand with democratic prices". Always in the spirit of her former vision.

Jil Sander