Why Is It That Jil Sander Is Still Hard To Sell?

The minimalist design is not as good as today.

In 1968, German designer Jil Sander created its own brand of the same name. In 90s of last century, the minimalist style of the brand was red and purple in a glitz, and it was a representative of minimalism.

However, after experiencing the brand resale, the founder's three degree departure and the high level of continuous substitution, no Jil Sander himself is in the market, even though he is in the hot pursuit of extreme minimalism and coldness.

In June, we reported that Jil sales in 2013 decreased by 2% year-on-year, net loss of about $16 million 420 thousand, and layoffs in the second half of last year.

Up to May 31st

Jil's operating profit fell by 26.2%, or about 4 billion 399 million yen, while its parent company Onward's latest earnings report showed that as of August 31st, the company's operating profit dropped 91.3% compared with 2 billion 577 million yen in the same period last year.

Japan's Onward said that the global retail environment was difficult and manufacturing businesses were weak. Besides, Japan's consumption tax growth also suppressed local consumption, and Jil's Middle East and Russian markets declined.

Since Jil Sander sold 75% of its shares to Prada in 1999, the brand has suffered twists and turns.

Because of the disagreement with Prada's development concept, the latter thinks "Jil Sander".

No need to rely on the name of a designer, "Jil Sander himself ran away in a high profile the next year," which is a perfect projection of all kinds of minimalist brands nowadays.

In 2003, Jil Sander briefly returned to design in order to save the brand. However, once again, it left for the same reason. In an interview, he revealed that he insisted on importing expensive fabrics from Japan, while the group simply cut costs.

Prada also lost patience, sold Jil to British investment company, and later bought Onward from Japan to this day.

In February 2012, the creative director, Raf Simons, who was responsible for the design of Jil Sander in 2005, went to Christian Dior and Jil Sander to save the field. This made some old customers rekindle expectations for the brand, but in October 2013, she resigned again.

The position of creative director has been vacant until April 2014, when Vionnet's creative director, Rodolfo Paglialunga, joined.

Faced with losses in the 2013 fiscal year, Alessandro Cremonesi, then CEO, said losses were mainly from the cost of product development in previous years, and expressed optimism about the future.

But in the last few months, he also announced his resignation from the company he joined in 2008.

In the downturn of the global retail industry, the loss of the core designer's brand status is even more worrying. With the high price, there is a little lack of attraction in many brands that are beginning to take a very simple or new design, and the price is close to the people. Frequent changes in personnel are also not conducive to the development of the company.

It is still a question whether Jil Sander will be able to get back to the good momentum of its brand in the future.