Though it was 10:30 in the morning, it felt like the end of the night at a Berlin club under the red lights of the Jil Sander show. Luke and Lucie Meier have spent nearly eight years at this brand, and at today’s scheduled start time, they were said to be making an imminent exit. An invitation to an after-hours party scheduled for tonight topped by their last name and the words It’s All Love looked conspicuously like the soft launch of an eponymous brand when it came in over email.

It’s illuminating to track the Meiers’ progress from their airy first show held outdoors on a warm September evening in 2017 to this one in February 2025 with its underground vibes. Where at the beginning they were focused on, per Lucie, a “feminine, light, and sensual” approach, one that you could describe as almost crafty, now they’re inclined toward something stronger: punk but decadent.

That certainly seemed to be the message at the start of this show, which began with a group of looks—a strapless dress, a man’s suit, a trench—decorated with spiky black fringe before moving into tailoring with military- and school-uniform undertones, some pieces with faux-fur accents. Kilts for women and men were a cool refrain. One thing that’s changed for the better over their tenure is how much more genderfluid high fashion has become and, in turn, less beholden to obsolete rules.

The world has grown precipitously darker over that same time frame, so their trajectory at Jil Sander mimics the culture’s. All that fringe could be read as a kind of armor or protection. But they didn’t go over completely to the dark side, so to speak. As the show progressed, softness came through in floral-print silk pieces, though even these were dip-dyed to shade from an almost luminescent yellow at the neckline to progressively darker at the hem before fading to black. The short-sleeve, A-line, full-length dress in this style would make an arty alternative for a dress code that called for formal black tie.

The designers themselves came out for their bow hand in hand in matching head-to-toe black, and by the end of the working day, a press release made their departure official. At the moment, the designer revolving door could give you whiplash, but signing off, that dress was one look that left a lasting impression.