On Wednesday morning at Milan Fashion Week, Luke and Lucie Meier took a bow after their latest Jil Sander runway show. Backstage, several models who have worked with the husband-and-wife designer duo across their eight-year tenure at the minimalist luxury house hugged each other and cried. Shortly after, Renzo Rosso, chairman of Jil Sander owner OTB, presented the Meiers with a massive bouquet of flowers.
By dinnertime in Milan, the news was official: Luke and Lucie Meier had presented their final collection for Jil Sander. A press release called the split mutual.
“Lucie and I are touched to have presented our last collection for Jil Sander after 8 years with the house,” said Luke in an Instagram post. “We want to thank everyone that has been involved and contributed their skill, creativity, and energy. We are so proud of all we have achieved together, and even more proud of the wonderful friendships we have made.”
In the statement, Rosso said he “wishes to thank Lucie and Luke for their vision, passion for excellence, and dedication to the brand.”
The Meier’s departure is the latest in an extraordinary flurry of high-profile designer shakeups, and consonant with the theme of change buffeting this Milan Fashion Week, where many designers are assumed to be presenting their swan song collections. A successor was not immediately announced, but it is widely rumored that current Bally designer Simone Bellotti is getting the nod.
It also means there are two more highly talented free agents on the market. The Meiers joined Jil Sander in 2017 and turned the beloved brand—founded by the “Queen of Less” in Hamburg in 1968—into a beacon of intellectual fancy, defined by rich materials, precise lines, and a general air of unfussiness. Their Jil Sander suits were strictly cut and typically oversized, and their outerwear in dense, shapely wools and silks looked almost bulletproof, armor for the art gallery circuit.
A lot of rarefied luxury garments look beautiful on the runway but somewhat ridiculous in the light of day, but the Meiers found magic in a synthesis of fantasy and utility—a reflection of Lucie’s background at Balenciaga and Dior and Luke’s tenure as design director of Supreme and the founder of OAMC.
Their final show took place inside a warren of heavy black curtains illuminated only by nightclub-basement lights. (Though the sun had just come out in Milan, it was so dark I could only identify my seatmates by their voices.) With ultra-luxe minimalism smothering fashion like a cashmere weighted blanket, the Meiers found a punk-ish edge in derbies bristling with sharp studs, burnished leather motorcycle jackets, and thick belts twisted over knife-pleat skirts. Near the end of the show, out came a trench coat in shiny silk that had been dip-dyed in some kind of ink, a standout piece of the designers’ fade-to-black moment.
