Jil Sander
I like women cool, never over-decorated. That’s old fashioned. I like to see a woman’s intellect, her strength of personality. Jil Sander
This statement by the influential German designer Jil Sander, could apply equally to her eponymous brand’s portfolio of perfumes including the newest Simply Jil Sander. Some of them – Jil Sander No 4, Jil Sander Woman II and Sun are carefully crafted perfumes with a distinctive pared down ambience, very much in keeping with the Sander aesthetic. Sander trained in textile design and she has remained remarkably true to a controlled purity of notion whilst at the helm of her company, producing a body of work that is somehow both classical and comfortably reserved. The use of monochromatic tones, exquisite cutting and playful use of line, bias and contour seem resolutely modern, echoing through other design houses such as Raf Simons (who succeeded Sander for 7 years) and Celine under the rigid tutelage of Phoebe Philo.
Guinevere Van Seenus for Jil Sander Spring Summer 1996 Photo Craig McDean
Scent was always part of the Sander story, with the first fragrances, Pure Man & Pure Woman launching in 1979. Now as she is set to retire from her own house for the second time, (she left in 2000 and returned in 2012, there was a brief bounceback in 2003-2004), we have Simply Jil Sander, created by Christophe Raynaud, one of the co-conspirators on the monolithic megabeast 1 Million by Paco Rabanne. So I was rather intrigued to read a post on the addictive Scent and Chemistry Facebook page that Simply was in many ways a riff on the powerful violet leafiness of Fahrenheit. They described is ‘as simply different, a violet free from the usual feminine context, playing with an androgynous context’.
Simply Jil Sander Campaign German Model Toni Garrn photographed by Josh Olins
In my head I imagined Simply as perhaps a swansong scent, a perfume that embodied the simplicity, beauty and often-androgynous appeal of the Sander mood. I ordered it from the Jil Sander online store and waited. I couldn’t really imagine anything smelling like one of the most emphatic and formative aromas of my youth. I suspect for many people Jean-Louis Sieuzac’s exalted Fahrenheit (1988) for Dior is the overpowering scentscape to a 1000 reeking teenage years. It is ghost scent now as reformulation and IFRA’s punitive regulations have stripped it to a whimpering cur of its glorious violet self. The huge dose of MHC (methyl heptyne carboxylate) was the key aroma component that gave Fahrenheit its mauve-angled fougère character. It was the scented equivalent of Francis Bacon’s tortured screaming Popes, violent, sexy and confrontational.
Simply Jil Sander is simply Fahrenheit in many ways, the comparisons are impossible to avoid. My friend Mr E tried it first, as I was off work when it arrived. He was impressed which is a good sign. I arrived to find the elegant black and cream oh-so-Sander flacon on my desk and dived in. The shock of nostalgia was visceral, for a sudden lurching moment I was hurled back to my fractious twenties, glowering at my friend S, wondering how he could kiss me as if each day were our last and still flaunt a smug violinist called Sara and ignore me. Fahrenheit was the scent of my seduction and rage. I knew it was something of a trangressive scent and despite its ubiquity I wore it with pornographic swagger. It’s amazing how much of this resonates through Simply, while still remaining gracefully aloof and luxurious. Raynaud has tempered any potential sweetness of the effusiveness violet heart with a lovely triptych of nutmeg, musks and a shimmering cold cedar. The violet leaf in the top is oddly metallic in application, but soothed by mandarin and the promise of vanilla in the base. A whisper of beige-toned butter-soft leather is wrapped around the central violet motif like a modernist Bauhaus bouquet. It serves to liquefy the notes, taming the initial massive nostalgic punch of Fahrenheity violet. Scent and Chemistry are calling it a chypré, pointing to the patchouli in the base as an indication of the more traditional oakmoss simulation.
Designer Jil Sander Hamburg 1968
The aura and persistence of Simply are pretty impressive, I can’t deny how much I love wearing this right now, both as an example of a fine modern launch but also obviously as a scented shard of biography, vivid, melancholy and pungently abstract.
Simply Jil Sander Perfume photo The Silver Fox
As Jil Sander moves gracefully into the shadows away from her precious house for the last time, this striking scent serves to remind us that as a designer and minimalist icon, she has few equals in terms of oddity and unexpected austere couture.
Notes:Top: Bergamot, Mandarin and Violet Leaf; Heart:Musky Notes, Violet, Cedarwood, Nutmeg; Base: Patchouli, Vanilla, leather accord
Disclosure – from my own collection
Editor's Note: I disagree with Simply being named as as chypré as there is no moss nor labdanum in the base. My source is Rodrigo Flores Roux of Givaudan
–The Silver Fox, Senior Editor and Editor of The Silver Fox