At Jil Sander, Another Sudden Departure Hits the Fashion World

At around 11 a.m. on Wednesday in Milan, Luke and Lucie Meier, the husband-and-wife duo who have been the Jil Sander creative directors since 2017, took a bow after their latest runway show.

The applause they received from the crowd would be the last they would hear in that role. Eight hours later, it was announced that they would be leaving the brand. A news release said that the split was a mutual decision.

Their replacement was not announced, nor were the Meiers’ future plans.

By today’s standards, the couple’s run at Jil Sander was a lengthy one. As short tenures and sudden departures at major houses have roiled the fashion world, surviving eight years at a top design job is a commendable feat. Yet their tenure was marked by perpetual change. In 2021, the brand was acquired by the OTB Group, a conglomerate that also owns Maison Margiela and Diesel.

Jil Sander also rotated through a handful of chief executives during the Meiers’ stint. Its most recent chief executive, Serge Brunschwig, formerly of Fendi, arrived just last month, increasing the volume of rumors that the Meiers were on their way out.

When the Meiers were appointed to the brand, Jil Sander was still struggling to find an identity as compelling — and as marketable — as the postmodern playfulness that the Belgian designer Raf Simons had displayed during his seven years as its creative director.

The Meiers’ pedigrees made them an alluring pick. Swiss-born Ms. Meier had the more conventional chops, having worked at Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga. She was also a leader of the ready-to-wear and couture studios at Dior under Mr. Simons and later under Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Ms. Meier’s high-design experience was balanced by the more mensy — dare say, streetwear-inflected — background of her Canadian husband. Mr. Meier was a onetime creative director at Supreme and had started his own label, OAMC.

At Jil Sander, the couple steered the label toward an austerity recalling the work of the label’s minimalist maestro of a founder, Jil Sander.

Especially early on, the Meiers’ shows were heavy on monochrome, with colors and patterns used as sparingly as cayenne. As luxury fashion began to tilt toward flamboyance and logo-happy flash, the Meiers were unafraid to show something as stark as pencil-straight dark trousers with a white button-up.

In time, their collections popped with butterscotch yellows, lipstick reds and blush pinks. Stripes, chevrons and even animal prints wove their way in. Throughout, the Meiers’ silhouette was encompassing — overcoats swaddled their wearers, dresses kissed their shins and shirts were so long they covered one’s hands.

Though the brand had its disciples during the couple’s run, Jil Sander couldn’t seem to find that signature item — a lusted-after bag or shoe, for instance — that would have given it a firmer commercial foothold.

As the Meiers join an ever-growing list of designers to have exited their post in recent months, Jil Sander finds itself among a competitive market of luxury labels searching for new creative direction. As it stands, Gucci, Dior Men and Fendi are all down a designer.

The show on Wednesday did not make any grand statements. It was, instead, a neat packaging of the Meiers’ polished inclinations. There were enveloping officer’s overcoats, high-gloss leather jackets, prim gowns affixed with fur accents and stark black suits.

Certain ideas — a sweater made of flyaway feathers, a gradient that molted into florals around the collar and dresses with untamed bows — hinted at a greater whimsy lying somewhere below the surface.

Backstage after the show, the Meiers posed with Renzo Rosso, the OTB Group chief executive. Tears were visible in Mr. Meier’s eyes, and Mr. Rosso offered his sleeve to wipe them away. The designers did not answer questions from the press, though that evening they planned an event that could only be interpreted as a going-away party. Its title? “It’s All Love”