Don’t Call Jil Sander “Minimal”
Suffice it say Jil Sander’s pared-down sartorial aesthetic belies her taste in home décor. In the Int’l Herald Tribune, Suzy Menkes describes Sander’s Renzo Mongiardino-designed Hamburg manse as the antithesis of less is more, noting the red dining room filled with Renaissance-style still-life paintings and gilded wall coverings salvaged from a Venetian theater. What’s more, for the record, Sander isn’t down with the m-word. “I prefer to call it ‘pure’—minimal can be very empty,” she says. Also verboten: “cheap,” a term with which she’s loath to use for her inexpensively priced +J collection for Uniqlo. Of course, that word pales in comparison to another five-letter no-no, “Prada,” which Menkes claims only came up once in the two-hour interview. Given the designer’s stormy history with the company that now owns her namesake label, let’s just say we don’t expect Miuccia and hubby Patrizio Bertelli over for tea any time soon.