New Head Designer at Jil Sander

I Pellettieri d’Italia S.p.A. (Milan), which does business as Prada, has hired Belgian men’s wear designer Raf Simons to direct its Hamburg, Germany-based Jil Sander division. Sander departed her namesake company last fall for a second time since selling it to Prada in 1999.

According to The New York Times, Simons’ collections are known to touch on themes of youthful alienation as well as the disposable nature of fashion.

Prada ceo Patrizio Bertelli began discussions with the 37-year-old designer after Sander, 61, left the company last November. Although sales in 2004 increased 11 percent, the decision to seek a new talent suggested that Bertelli was eager for more permanent design leadership.

“We definitely needed to make a change,” said Jil Sander ceo Gian Giacomo Ferraris.

Simons will become creative director on July 1, 2005, overseeing men’s and women’s designs. He will present his first collection at the January 2006 men’s shows in Milan and his women’s collection in February. He will continue with his own brand, which is based in Antwerp, Belgium, and shown in Paris.

Simons is a former industrial design student who began his label in 1995. “He has the potential to be the best person that Bertelli has hired, and Bertelli needs to be successful with this,” Julie Gilhart, the fashion director at Barneys New York, told The Times. “Someone with a men’s wear perspective is exactly what we need. We have enough frills.”

Simons said in an interview from his office in Antwerp that he felt prepared for the new job. “It’s a world that I understand very well and like very much,” he said. “It’s a world in which the men’s and the women’s are closely linked, and where you have the feeling that nothing is added to the design unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

He admitted, though, that the recent turnover at Sander is a concern. “Of course, it worries me,” he said. “I’m scared like a chicken. But the attraction is bigger. You believe you can build something up again. And I don’t see myself causing a revolution from one season to the next. I just want to try to understand this world of Jil Sander better.”