Jil Sander or “The Queen of Less” has been shaping the German fashion world with its modern and at the same time simple designs for women for over 50 years. Your designs are timeless and therefore still up to date today. This is also demonstrated by the award of the “German Design Award” in 2018, which Sander received, even though she already left active business in 2013.
Heidemarie Jiline “Jil” Sander has been known for her elegant and high-priced fashion for women, which is described as clear and timeless, since the 1980s and for men as well as for her cosmetic line since 1997. In addition to Karl Lagerfeld and Wolfgang Joop, Sander is one of the few internationally renowned fashion designers in Germany. Because of her minimalist, simple designs and her preference for luxurious fabrics, she received nicknames from the press like “Queen of less”, Queen of Omission , and “Cashmere Queen”.
“The most terrifying moment was when my mother woke us up and said, ‘It’s raining – today rubber boots are put on.’ You have ideas as a child. ” – Jils Sander
These ideas of fashion are becoming more and more concrete for the designer: It is important to her that fashion not only radiates elegance, but is also comfortable to wear. And so she sets about designing clothes that are as comfortable as men have long been wearing. She creates women’s fashion from fabrics for men’s suits, which are not masculine, but simple and soft.
Her designs are always minimalistic and the fabrics are luxurious, so that she soon gets the nickname “Queen of Less” or “Cashmere Queen”. The “Queen of Omission” also lives according to this motto. She does not wear jewelry, only a Rolex watch adorns her wrist.
But first she lives out her passion for fashion as an editor for magazines like “Petra” and “Constanze”. At this time, she was already influencing fashion spreads by asking manufacturers to change small details. She became more and more aware that she wanted to design herself and so she opened her first fashion boutique in Hamburg-Pöseldorf in 1967. Only a year later she founded the “Jil Sander GmbH”.
In 1968 Sander founded the company in Hamburg and thus the Jil Sander brand. After difficult early years, which were overcome with a lucrative perfume license, an IPO in 1989 and internationally successful times in the 1990s, Sander sold the now globally active company to the Prada Group in mid-1999 as part of expansion plans and left the company in April of the year 2000. After a short return as chief designer in 2003, she resigned from her post in late 2004. After a five-year absence from the fashion world, Sander developed the low-priced design line + J from 2009 to the end of 2011 as creative director at the Japanese fashion chain Uniqlo. In February 2012, Sander returned to the company she founded almost 44 years earlier, which had been sold by Prada in 2006 and now belonged to a Japanese textile company, as creative director , to leave it again in October 2013.
Jil Sander still lives on the estate in Plön, where she has devoted her time to maintaining the large garden. Her partner’s sons still belong to her family – she now has five grandchildren. She keeps her private life as good as possible from the media. The designer rarely gives interviews and is rarely seen on the red carpet or on TV.
