In 1968, luxury fashion reaped a makeover of major proportions, as the macrocosm of contemporary couture learned that less really is more. The modern wardrobe was stripped to its most essential formーan exceptional material and a good-cutーand minimalist design infiltrated each silhouette. Jil Sander had entered the scene, generating a tornado of detailed tailoring and timeless reverence in her wake. Nearly 60 years later, the impact of Sander’s influence is memorialized in the new monograph titled Jil Sander by Jil Sander, a complete retrospective rich in archival materials and testimonies supplied by Jil Sander herself. 

Designed by Dutch bookmaker Irma Boom (featured in collections at the MOMA, Vatican Library, and Centre Pompidou) with text by journalist and literary scholar Ingeborg Harms, the book offers readers an unrivaled glimpse into Sander’s creative perspectives and thought processes, featuring some of the brand’s most iconic work from 1968 to present day. In an ode to the simplicity and beauty so characteristic of the Jil Sander brand, a range of imagery and sources previously unseen detail the course of Sander’s groundbreaking career and the lasting impressions born out of her minimalist approach to design. 

“Opulence for me is a good cut, a great material. A refined cut replaces styling. When it’s done well, the proportions are clear and meticulously structured: the Golden Ratio or Golden Cut, as it were” 

Excerpt from Jil Sander by Jil Sander

The decision to chronicle the evolution of Jil Sander’s creations was not a random event. In fact, the book was actually born out of a 2017 effort to systematize an archive in preparation for the Jil Sander museum exhibition. 

“Going through the material, I was pleased to see that my work over the years had been multifaceted, not just business wear and trouser suits, as is sometimes suggested,” Sander told V exclusively. “I wanted to share this impression and guide the eye to recurring themes, interesting fabrics, and more elaborate details.” Famously publicity-shy, Sander now provides readers with unprecedented access to her creative mind.

Sander spent her earliest days as a fashion magazine editor before establishing her namesake brand in Hamburg, Germany. By the late 80s, she had cemented herself as a designer immune to the constant rotation of trends, prioritizing a visual aesthetic rooted in lightness, structure, and untrodden timelessness. Prioritizing high-quality materials and meticulous craftsmanship, Sander’s artistic sensibilities redefined contemporary fashion. Intricate tailoring, structured suiting, and an emphasis on understated elegance emerged as the frontrunning tenets of the civilian wardrobe, one founded on a “less is more” ethos characteristically à la Jil Sander. 

In creating the monograph, Sander aimed to highlight the threads of modernity that weaved through each aspect of her designs. To her, notions of avant-garde were formulated to inform fashion, not the other way around. 

“I have always been thinking along these lines, looking for inspiration in other cultural and technical fields, wanting to understand what the present moment was all about and how it could be translated into fashion. This search was not about slogans attached to a T-shirt, it was about cutting-edge technics and fabrics, cuts, and proportions.”

Jil Sander, in conversation with V

Following her ascension as one of fashion’s most prestigious names, Sander began experimenting with the world of cosmeticsーher iconic perfume was an architectural masterpiece in itself, relying on glass as a medium rather than a materialーbefore partnering with leading architects in creating the minimalist construction that distinguishes her flagship stores as Jil Sander jewelsーthe spiral staircase designed for her flagship on Paris’s Avenue Montaigne is a remarkable interpretation of Bauhaus ideals. 

Purity and strength ran rampant in Sander’s designs, as her vision epitomized daily sophistication. Aversions to colorful patterns and prints, androgynous silhouettes, classical British suiting, and lightweight, nonetheless methodic, styles defined her yearslong reign as fashion’s leading modernist architect. Her pieces harmonized and anticipated the body’s movements, as she regarded clothing as the wearer’s second skin. In a thoughtfully curated melange of archival photos, textures, runway shots, and commentary, Sander, along with Boom and Harms, have pieced together a thorough account of Sander’s enduring significance. 

“The object of the book was to create the vivid mood of a fashion-show. Zoom-ins and picture cropping allow for a close inspection of tailoring, weaves, and color coding…By mixing collections of different seasons, I wanted to highlight ongoing themes and the conceptional stringency I tried to achieve.”

Jil Sander, in conversation with V

In a tactful foreword authored by Sander herself, the German designer points out the parallels between the political upheaval present during her childhood in Hamburg and the current environment of cataclysmic change looming in the air. Yet, as much as history repeats itself, Sander reminds us that, whether we like it or not, the only way out is to continue pushing forward. 

“My design work has been about not getting lost in nostalgia and backward glances,” Sander tells V. “I wanted to dress women and men for the present moment, to translate our cultural achievements into a vestimentary attitude…Healing, at least in a psychological or spiritual sense, has to do with letting go. My mission in fashion has been to welcome the new and to discard the jaded.”

Jil Sander by Jil Sander by Prestel is now available for purchase.