Jil Sander, The Queen Of Minimalism, Is Bringing Back Her Uniqlo Collaboration

How will we dress after “all this”? Well, there seems to be three front-runners at the moment: exactly the same as we dressed before (exuberant, free, expressive), in sweatpants, or in +J, the resurrected collaboration between the German designer Jil Sander and Uniqlo. After going on hiatus in 2011, +J is returning this autumn, bringing Sander’s unmatched minimalism to the masses at the most necessary time.

A press release from Uniqlo is scant on new information, saying only that her collection “versatile, exceptional” and “[defines] the global modern uniform with understatement and ease.” But those of us who remember Sander’s first project with Uniqlo, which ran from 2009 to 2011, have a good sense of what to expect. There was enough outerwear to fill a wardrobe thrice over, with boxy pea coats, belted trenches, and blazers of deceptively simple design, as well as Jil Sander essentials, such as white shirts, black pants, and elegant, unfussy knits. 

The collection will arrive mid-season, landing amid a season of other Jil Sander news. The Jil Sander brand, which Sander herself founded in 1968 and then had an on-again, off-again relationship with, departing in 2000, 2004, and again in 2013, will have just shown a collection by its current creative directors, Lucie and Luke Meier, in Milan. The Meiers’ tenure might have started quietly, but it is has been picking up commercially, finding fans in shoppers who long for sumptuous minimalism. Also in Milan, Prada, the one-time owner of Jil Sander, will be debuting a new collection under the co-creative direction of Raf Simons, the one-time creative director of the Jil Sander brand.