Today Sander’s maniacal devotion is paying off big. Despite a worldwide economic slump, the German fashion designer is not only making a splash in Paris but creating ripples in global markets as well. Now known to the world as “Jil” Sander, her distinctive clothes are sold in such posh U.S. retail establishments as I. Magnin and Bergdorf Goodman. And she has begun to appear in advertisements for her own perfume line. Within two years she plans to launch a new line of men’s fashions as well. “She may not be on par with the best of the Parisians yet, but she’s on her way,” says Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue.
Some would say she has already arrived. The small circle of devotees who patronized her tiny boutique in Hamburg’s exclusive Poseldorf section in the 1970s has expanded into an international clientele of glitterati-among them Jacqueline Onassis, Kim Basinger and Barbra Streisand. For 20 years she has not only created all of her clothes but also run the business side of the company with a designer’s eye for detail. She knows all her retailers by name, she tries on or inspects every piece in her two annual collections and she even designs the bottles for her personally created scents. Meanwhile, sales of Sander’s ready-to-wear clothing almost doubled to $82 million from 1987 to 1991. Her company is expected to ring up more than $200 million in total sales this year, nearly half of it from a successful cosmetics line. Despite the rapid growth, Sander keeps a tight grip on the company. (“I’m still learning how to delegate,” she admits.) She held total control over the company until 1989, when the firm sold 30 percent of its stock to the public.
Sander’s success may owe as much to her knack for promotion-and self-promotion-as to her management abilities. Her women’s fragrance, Jil Sander No. 4, has been on the market for only four months, but it has already become the best-selling brand at I. Magnin in San Francisco and Beverly Hills. Her name also appears boldly on the packaging of her new men’s fragrance, Feeling Man. The ads for the scent picture a handsome, muscular hunk seductively kissing a woman’s hand.
Fashion experts say her ability to appeal to men and women alike is one of Sander’s biggest strengths. She has never indulged in the frills and fuss of Parisian boutique fashion-which is one of the reasons she bombed there in the ’70s. Her sensibility always leaned more toward the ease and comfort of men’s clothing; her styles do not equate sashes, bows or glitz with femininity (her fashion taste would better suit Marlene Dietrich than Cher, for example). “A woman in a suit or a black dress can be more sexy than a woman who’s all glittery,” she says. Her jackets, pants and dresses with their razor-sharp cuts and studied attention to detail play up a woman’s strength and self-confidence, while the muted colors, fluid lines and rich cashmeres and wools add a soft, sexy quality. “I began early to develop materials which came from the men’s area, but were still feminine,” she says.
Sander’s business strategy is as uncompromising as her design. Regardless of the dismal economy, she continues to target the tiny percentage of elite customers who can afford her creations, which cost from $500 for a single blouse to $7,000 for a suit. She is one of the few successful designers who have not followed the lead of mass marketers like Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan in creating a less expensive line that profits from the reputation of the high-priced couture collection. Nor has she anything in common with the more down-market Escada or Hugo Boss, the German men’s clothing manufacturer who has some 900 stores in Germany alone and worldwide sales of $664 million in 1991. Far from wanting to expand to the masses, Sander is proud of her company’s exclusivity. “Our strategy is never quantity, it’s always quality,” she says. “I believe very much in a modern luxury product. You don’t throw away a Jil Sander, you pass it down to the next generation.”
Not going mass market, however, doesn’t mean not growing. Despite the recession, Sander wants to target the luxury customer in as many countries as possible. The firm doesn’t plan any further stores in Germany because the market there is saturated. “If we opened more shops, we would lose our exclusivity,” says Gudrun Graichen, the company’s marketing director.
Will the name Jil Sander become as well known in America as, say, Calvin Klein or Liz Claiborne? An old adage among designers is that for a designer to be truly successful, she must move a Paris fashion-show audience to tears. Until now Sander has left the runway crowds decidedly dry-eyed. But she will get a second chance this spring when she shows her creations again at the Louvre’s famed Cour Carree. Knowing her penchant for promotion, she just may hand out the handkerchiefs in advance.
