Jil Sander has always been a 'need' brand-the perfect crisp white shirt, the immaculately tailored coat, and a razor-sharp jacket, and perhaps it will always remain one. Yet most of the time, Raf Simons tries to break away from this deeply ingrained stereotype and move towards a more conceptual Jil Sander. This decision has its merits but hasn't always paid off in the recent years. I find that most of the time the concept gets in the way with the clothes, it may be 'edgy' but it isn't desirable. Which therefore explains why his past collections have somewhat only received a lukewarm response from the fashion crowd. Thankfully for Raf Simons, he sheds most of the concept which have hindered his rise to the top and managed to evolve this collection into a 'want', or rather more appropriately, a 'GOD DAMN IT, I WANT!". I'm unabashed to say that this was my favourite collection in the history of a catastrophic Spring 2011 fashion week.
It doesn't come as a surprise that much of the excitement of the show could not be contained in Milan itself, manifesting itself into 140-character Twitter love declarations and unashamed fan-girling on twitpic. Perhaps one of the main driving forces for Raf's success in Milan was the fact that minimalism, a Jil Sander attribute has become a mainstay in fashion week (at least for now) and it's only right to take a few calculated risks and up the stakes of the game that everyone wants to be a part in. And Raf certainly did that, without resurrecting dead cliches of frumpy boring daywear or the same old Jil Sander classics.
The palette was extraordinary, a daring pick of highly saturated colours-shocking pink, day-glo orange, and bold hues of blue, green, yellow. It was a well-executed balancing act of a strong colour palette restricted in a boxed-in simplicity of form and a couture code of construction (not the embroideries but rather the shapes.) The volume and silhouettes of the clothes were well-controlled, which thankfully didn't make the models look twenty thousand feet wide. Rather than adding fuss, the floor-sweeping skirts seemed to accentuate lines and curves, especially exemplified in the undulating shapes around the hips. I wouldn't want to wait till next Spring to see these skirts billowing down the streets, my patience might have died by then, and I might just rape the Jil Sander atelier (now can someone get these in my wardrobe before my actions get uncontrollable). The sack shape will always bring to mind a haute couture sensibility, yet this seemed easy and very wearable, not forgetting desirable. The parkas and the windbreakers also brought the clothes down to utilitarian pret-a-porter, which is always a good thing since couture sometimes leaves a bad after-taste in your mouth. At least for me.
The strongest pieces in the show, or in this case defined as my favourites, were that of the neon flowers print. It brought to mind old, tacky and ultimately chinese-y bedsheets from my grandparents era, except these were turned up a few notches along the gradient scale. The neon water/ink-spill on a t-shirt-skirt combination was pretty rad too. Maybe the neon flowers exploded and released its otherworldly dyes? Also, the stripes in this collection were pretty perfect, which culminated in the most wonderful barely-there top and a pretty rad bubble-gum pink ankle-length skirt (look at how it reflects the light).
It was a bold move by the Belgian designer-bold silhouettes and bold colours that couldn't be any more perfect. Unfortunately, I now find myself confused about my own gender identity because I would love to try on one of those skirts. (Let's hope that I will grow longer legs and this will only be temporary.)