Jil Sander rumored close to naming Daniel Lee as new creative director

The house of Jil Sander is close to naming Daniel Lee to be its new creative director, according to well-informed sources in Milan.

Lee would succeed the duo of Luke and Lucie Meier, who will stage their final show in the next women’s ready-to-wear season in Milan in late February.
 
Jil Sander is part of OTB Group, or Only The Brave, the holding company of Italian jeans wear billionaire Renzo Rosso. OTB’s other luxury marques include Margiela, Bally and Viktor & Rolf.

Asked at Margiela’s recent MM6 runway show in Pitti about his future plans for Jil Sander, Rosso replied, “We have found a great star designer for Jil. But I won’t say who.”
 
Daniel Lee is currently the creative director of Burberry, joining the famed UK brand in 2022. However, with Burberry suffering recent declines in sales, and the arrival of a new CEO Josh Shulman at the house, Lee’s departure would not be entirely unexpected.  
 
The appointment would mark the return of Lee to Milan, after he left the position of creative director of Bottega Veneta in late 2021. While at BV, Lee won considerable critical acclaim for his revival of the brand, developing a new hefty version of its signature intreccio woven leather which was a huge commercial success.
 
Lee, 38, could not be reached for comment. However, it is understood that he knows Rosso rather well from his time in Milan, and has been in contact recently. Any official announcement is not expected before late February.
 
Jil Sander founded her brand in 1968 in Hamburg, becoming Germany’s most influential home-based designer, before selling control to Prada in 1999. After she fell out with Prada’s clan chieftain Patrizio Bertelli, Prada sold out to a London-based private equity firm, who later unloaded Jil Sander to the Japanese fashion conglomerate Onward Holdings. In March 2021, OTB acquired Jil Sander from Onward.
 
Luke and Lucie Meier had joined Jil Sander in 2017, and garnered highly respectable reviews for their pure, even puritanical vision of the brand. And for their artful catwalk displays – like staging a show on a carefully ploughed field instead of a runway. Blending Japanese design elements with cocoon shapes, macramé knits and rich embellishments, their tenure will be fondly remembered.
 
However, Rosso has a dream of building Jil Sander into a quiet luxury giant – hence his desire for a new designer at the helm.