Jil Sander rumoured to be looking for a new designer

A lot has gone on at the house of Jil Sander in the last few years. Raf Simons left to take up his position of creative director at Dior and the founder returned, only to leave again 18 months later. Then Rodolfo Paglialunga (who was previously the womenswear design director at Prada and creative director at Vionnet) took the helm – a position that he has retained for two and a half years now.

But things might be about to change again. WWD reports that Jil Sander is “putting out feelers to designers”, though the chairman of Gibò Group, which controls the brand, said that the current creative director is “on board, present and active, and is developing the brand’s fall-winter collection. There are a lot of rumours, but all is proceeding regularly with Rodolfo.”

So whose names are being thrown around? Well, one is Simon Porte Jacquemus, one of France’s most celebrated emerging designers who has been praised for his deconstructed, surrealist designs and poetic shows. Another is Lucie Meier who (along with Serge Ruffieu) headed up the design team at Dior during the interim between Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri’s creative directorships.

Time will tell whether there’s any truth to these rumours. This comes at a time when a lot of Milanese houses are experiencing change: Last month saw Consuelo Castiglioni leave Marni, Peter Dundas leave Roberto Cavalli and Justin O’Shea depart Brioni (after just six months at the helm). And earlier this year, three Milan designers resigned in one week: Stefano Pilati from Zegna, Brendan Mellane from Brioni and Alessandro Sartori from Berluti.

See backstage photos from Jil Sander’s SS17 menswear show in the gallery above.