Lucie and Luke Meier pursued a darker, more powerful vision at Jil Sander today. Backstage they called it a reaction to the world environment. There’s an almost inescapable only-the-strong-survive quality to our current moment, so it’s somewhat surprising to see fashion leaning into prettiness. That was more or less the Meiers’ position last season, when they focused on swaddled shapes and feminine gestures. Their response this season seemed to have been tweaked for the harsh realities of our time.
They took their cues from the work of the Canadian photographer Greg Girard, who was in the audience. His images of 20th-century cars and motel rooms appeared as prints, the former on a boxy shirt and pencil skirt and the latter on a caban and matching shift that complemented the show’s carpeted runway.