In Cortile d’onore del Palazzo di Brera in Milan, Jil Sander proposed a Spring- Summer 2020 collection very rich in details and styles whose traces belong to the history of fashion, while managing to remain faithful to the identity of the house. In addition to the collection, the beautiful atmosphere was enriched by the glorious architecture that framed the dresses on the catwalk.
The essential features of the House are immediately noticeable thanks to garments with minimal cuts, straight lines and monochrome color tones; extremely emblematic in this sense were the suits with trousers long up to the heel that seemed to blend with the sandals and jerseys and jackets with geometric and rigorous structures.
Indeed, it seems that the intent of Lucie and Luke Meier was to celebrate the multifaceted structure of the body, able to take different forms each time based on the cuts of clothes, their lines and styles. A multifaceted nature that is also recognized in the influences perhaps sought in the historical archives; evident is the reference at first to the classicism with white clothes that recall the peplums of ancient Greece, and then we land in Japan with the kimonos that gracefully adhere to the bodies, while the shape of pleated dresses recalls the '30s.
The oriental motifs are also visible on garments with details depicting birds and carps, which in some ways recall Surrealist art and more precisely the Lobster Dress with Dalì’s famous draw conceived by Schiaparelli for Wallis Simpson.
There are also modern accessories such as earrings with pearls (also a Renaissance revival) and mini handbags, one of the most significant trends of 2019.
The experiment reaches its climax towards the end of the show, with clothes on which some installations have been applied, that seem to extend beyond the dress and enrich its structure suggesting yet another reformulation of classical norms.
Words by Ludovica Mucci