WHAT COLLABORATIVE PROCESSES HAS JIL SANDER BEEN INVOLVED IN AND HAVE THEY SUCCESSFULLY REACHED THEIR INTENDED MARKET?

Personally, I believe that the collaborations Jil Sander have embarked in so far are unusual.

One of their most successful has been with fast fashion brand Uniqlo, titled +J. Designed by Jil Sander, +J challenged industry conventions of luxury and accessibility in a mission to simplify life with straight urban quality pieces (Uniqlo, n.d). Despite its success, I do question if this could have hindered the ‘luxury’ appeal to the brand by merging it with disposable fashion. Fast fashion is undeniably acquainted to cheap materials and unfair working conditions, therefore by combining a brand quoting to hail elegance and purity, amongst the latter, I often ponder if this is contradicting. I appreciate the strategy behind infusing functionality to affordable garments, and how this collaboration would have driven Jil Sander into an expanded consumer market, but with an emerging generation craving sustainability in the industry, such processes can be interpreted tedious and would not receive as desirable attention in the future.

Another collaboration involved Arc’teryx, an outdoor equipment company, known for leading innovations in climbing, skiing and alpine technologies (Arc’teryx Official, n.d). Many of the Jil Sander campaigns have a landscape feature, embracing nature and coastal areas. Nonetheless, this collaboration appeared bizarre since there was no relationship between the elegant assets of Jil Sander and the mountaineering, practicality components of Arc’teryx.

My confusion was iterated within consumer reactions too, where some titled the garments ‘unpractical’ for their requirements, and logo-centric where the brands have placed more emphasis on profit through logomania, than design. I appreciate how Jil Sander initiated curiosity through such ventures, but it has proven to me the importance of consideration in collaboration and how the process must benefit all brands and consumer markets involved.