Jil Sander and Thonet: The designer in an interview about the minimalist furniture collaboration of the year

When the design incorporates the color – and the overall effect is a high-quality statement.

What does a material need to convince you?

Of course, this is easier to show than to describe. That's why I deliberately examine thousands of fabric samples beforehand and feel them with my hand. The material must be of convincing quality and have interesting properties that inspire my design. That's why I often develop fabrics specifically based on my ideas.

In your book "Jil Sander by Jil Sander," you find the following sentence: "Clothing is the covering of a person, almost a second skin." Following this analogy, what is a piece of furniture?

For media theorist Marshall McLuhan, furniture was an extension of the body. An uncomfortable piece of furniture restricts our freedom of movement, while an unattractive piece of furniture damages our self-confidence.

One hundred years ago, Marcel Breuer took over the management of the Bauhaus furniture workshop. How did this design school influence your own designs?

I also always considered what I could omit to make the statement clearer and stronger. Like the Bauhaus school, I start with the question of materials; I seek out and develop innovative fabrics with a malleable character that help me work three-dimensionally. And I focus on the essentials, forgoing unmotivated decoration and instead highlighting the pattern construction. For me, the appeal of fashion lies in attractive, contemporary understatement. To achieve this, I look for new proportions and 3D forms. Cut, material quality, details, and meticulous workmanship support the design.

You were the first in many things: for example, the first German designer with her own cosmetics line and the first woman on the board of a publicly traded fashion company—yours. In fact, you're also the first woman to design for Thonet without being part of a duo. Does that matter to you?

I hadn't thought about it. Of course, there were many team discussions. But ultimately, I have to be able to make the decision.

In the late 1990s, a story about your home on the Alster lake appeared in VOGUE. Photos of it are rarely found online these days. It was furnished by the legendary Italian architect and interior designer Renzo Mongiardino. What was he like?

Renzo and I became friends through our long collaboration. He was already over 70 years old, yet very young and radical in his convictions. I consulted him because I couldn't find a solution for the interior. The renowned Hamburg architect Martin Haller had built the house in the historicist style at the end of the 19th century. Renzo was amused by my determination to modernize the interior, without being influenced in the slightest. We discussed a lot, but he won me over with his knowledge. When he discovered the wainscoting of a Renaissance private Venetian theater in Paris, he inspired me. That was the beginning, and I became his assistant. Renzo taught me that every stylistic period, at its peak, unfolds its own purism and specific quality. In this spirit, we created a Renaissance interior for the house, in which I feel very comfortable. I miss Renzo's kindness, humor, and wisdom.