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This weekend, our Twitter feed exploded with excitement/praise/gushing about Raf Simons' latest collection for Jil Sander. Joe Zee, creative director of Elle, tweeted: "I think Raf Simons has officially made me a color convert with his Jil Sander collection. So incredibly major! With a capital M." And Cathy Horyn, fashion critic at the NY Times, wrote "Emphatic revision of color and volume at Jil as Simons does couture forms to extreme in day-glo and florals, also tailoring, in real mood."
The reviews have also been overwhelming: "Jil Sander's Raf Simons turned on the power," wrote AFP; Hilary Alexander at the Telegraph wrote: "This was a big, modern statement by the house designer, Raf Simons—literally, taking it to the max." Vogue UK says: "Raf Simons stole the show. The Jil Sander collection this afternoon did just what he does so well: make everybody forget everything they’ve seen before by giving them brilliantly conceived, complete distraction." And WWD writes:
A plain white T-shirt and a ball gown skirt—a mundane design idea if there ever was one, and another example of how a great designer, in this case Raf Simons, needs very little to create something extraordinary. His fantastic spring collection for Jil Sander opened with five variations on the aforementioned look that combined a simple shape with an explosive color—magenta, purple, emerald green — and struck like a bolt of lightning. It provided the premise for the entire show.· Jil Sander Milan spring 2011 [YouTube]