JIL SANDER

Known as the "Queen of Less" Jil Sander is a german minimalist fashion designer and founder of the Jil Saunder fashion house. Sander founded her own fashion house in Hamburg, Germany in 1968. She flourished through the 1980s and 1990s, working alongside Prada who also bought 75% shares in her company.

As a symbolic designer who focused on minimalism in particular, Sander was a key force behind the development of women’s fashion in the eighties and nineties.Her trademarks were neutral colors, unusual textures,quality fabrics being the force behind many of her collections, and an open-minded attitude toward technological innovation. In 1999,for example, she used Nike Air Max mesh for suiting.

In 1999, as minimalism died down and maximalism was all the rage, Sander sold 75% of her company to Prada, which created a completley new vibe to her fashion house and the collections that were shown. Six months after selling, she resigned as chief designer, only to return, briefly, three years later, then resign again. She was brought back a second time in 2012, as the industry brought back her favourite concept of less-is-more, but she then abruptly left in 2013 for personal reasons.
It was during her come back in 2000 that Sander first showed that her occasionally severe, functional style could evolve. She inched from power toward prettiness, changing her original style to less androgynous and more feminine.  It has been announced that Sander will be leaving again following her Spring collection 2014.

Jil Sander has been devoted to minimalism since she began her career as a fashion desinger, which is why I chose her as one of my designers to research into. Sander established a fashion label through her own personal taste and style without any influecnes from the fashion industry. Perhaps this is why she has left and come back so many times? When maximalism was in trend she could have altered her style to become more mainstream and current. However I really respect that she would instead rather lay low for a while and make stronger come backs when minimalism is back on the scene. She sticks to what she does best and how she wants to design and create garments. This should be considered by more designers to prevent so many repeated trends. 

HALSTON

Roy Halston Frowick, best known as Halston, was an iconic clothing designer of the 1970s. Born in Des Moines, Iowa on April 23, 1932, he started off designing hats. It was his dresses, however, that made him famous. They were sexy and streamlined, perfect for high-strung nights on a disco floor. After two decades of distinguishing himself as a fashion designer, Halston was diagnosed with AIDS. He passed away in 1990.

Halston achieved great fame after designing the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband's presidential inauguration in 1961, and when he moved to designing women's wear, he was then called"the premier fashion designer of all America."His designs were worn by Bianca Jagger,Lauren Hutton,Liza Minnelli, Anjelica Huston,Gene Tierney,Lauren Bacall, Babe Paley, and Elizabeth Taylor,setting a style that would be closely associated with this era. 

In 2010 Sarah Jessica Parker joined Halston's design team as president and chief creative officer of Halston Heritage. Halston Heritage dresses are worn by her character, Carrie, in Sex and the City 2. 

As "the first designer to realize the potential of licensing himself," his influence went beyond style to reshape the business of fashion.Through his licensing agreement with J.C Penney, his designs were accessible to women at a variety of income levels. Although this practice is not uncommon today, it was a controversial move at the time as luxury clothing was symbolic of wealth . Halston, his perfume, was sold in a bottle designed by Elsa Peretti and it was supposedly the second biggest selling perfume of all time. He was one of the first designers to break the boundary between high street and designer clothing, his brand was less intimidating than other competitors at the time. 

Born in Des Moines, Iowa. Halston created hats and altered clothes as a child. 

Halston attended school at the Art Institute of Chicago and opened his first milliner store in 1957. 

Halston headed to New York City and became the head milliner at Bergdorf Goodman.

For Halston, timing was everything. He created garments with sleek and clean lines, using lux fabrics with a  minimalist approach , still considering stylings of the time. This made him a stronger force than Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, who were both designing in the US at the same time. 

Controversial at the time, Halston licensed his brand name to JC Penney, making his clothing brand more accessible to all women. This would later become the norm for luxury brands. 

Achieved great fame when Jacqueline Kennedy wore his pillbox hat to the Presidential Inauguration in 1961. 

Designed couture dresses for the Studio 54 crowd, including Bianca Jagger, Anjelica Houston, Liza Minnelli, Lauren Hutton, Lauren Bacall and Elizabeth Taylor. 

I consider Issey Miyake to be one of the great minimalist designers of the 1990s. When I look carefully at his clothing they appear so plain, yet so sculptural. I chose Miyake as one of my designers to explore because of his minimal and logical approach to fashion, and his way of opening up new horizons for making clothes. Through extensive research, experimentation and development he always carefully considers the relationship between the human body and clothing. Born in Japan, Miyake studied graphic design in college.  After graduating in 1964, he left for Paris to study at la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.  Miyake returned to Japan in 1970 and started the Miyake Design Studio, where he established himself as a well-known designer.

Miyake was always interested in combining technology and functionality into his garments. In the late 80s, he experimented with new methods of pleating. This resulted in the creation of a new technique called 'garment pleating' which influenced his work heavily. His iconic contribution to fashion was his Pleats Please collection that I touched on briefly earlier in my blog when discussing my chosen subculture. This collection was very fresh and innovative for minimalism as a subculture, a designer considering more than just setting a trend. For this particular collection Miyake had a unique way of manipulating fabrics, he focused on geometric cutting and different ways to pleat the fabric to create three-dimensional shapes. His color pallet is usually very reduced, which keeps the focus on the movement of the wearer. Many of his garments take on the shapes of rectangles and other geometric forms when laid flat.  However, once placed on the body, the garments take shape and create interesting silhouettes. 

His clothing to date still has many of the same qualities that originate from his trademark Pleats Please collection. Miyake’s clothing embodies elements that are expressed through all minimal styles, the ability to re create form and shape in interesting ways. His work has never been about following a trend or perhaps even creating garments that are particularly wearable. His focus is on cut, shape and how the garment interacts with the wearer, creating sculptural pieces that push traditional elements of design. Miyake likes to be seen as an artist rather than a designer, developing new ways to utilize both function and form in his designs.

132 5 Issey Miyake is Miyake's latest innovation that explores methods of construction and shape using emerging technologies.

The flat piece signifies a single piece of fabric, the three others refer to the three-dimensional shape which can be flattened into a two-dimensional form and the last is a reference to the fifth dimension. The fifth dimension, according to Miyake, is the precise moment when the garment is worn on the body and comes to life “through the communication among people.”

Issey Miyake dresses, both are beautiful examples of how technology, minimalist concepts and fashion can collaborate and be completely innovate.