Jil Sander SS 09 is a challenge and that can be directional. Image via frillr.com

My first reaction to Raf Simon's collection for Jil Sander SS 09 was that of a fashion philistine, on the order of... "Who wants to ever wear a color blocked jacket? Especially one in yellow and PINK". Even the safe pieces, like the black perforated jackets felt tricky with their melange of zippers punctuated with circles, triangles and squares. As in really, really geometric. Like the color-blocking. Geometric. Techno. Like the soundtrack. ZZZZZZZZZ.
For a man with a usually unerring eye for subtlety and stealth in how his clothes moves across modern city streets, JS SS09 seemed to be shaping up to be quite forced, quite over-emphatic with a strange idea of fit. A thin neck and a collarless jacket...Hmmmmm...But sometimes you need context and perspective and I thought of all that colorblocking and overlapping Simons had been doing in his own recent collections, most notably in those infamous "moon boots" that TI loved . That thought leads to the title of the piece. Its very easy to lament the missing sense of "direction" coming from Milan. Its a recession,...men's clothing have never really been that adventurous..all cycles of innovation are usually followed by a reactionary period.. all the relevant defenses are easy to invoke. But what was interesting about that Jil Sander collection was that it was personal and honest, even when it was awkward (unto ugliness). Sometimes when you are looking for direction your eyes get caught by the bright colors. After the Artforum articles on the MOMA "Color" show, after all the Richter retrospectives, after all that computer generated color trickery in our modern age, maybe turning up the palette is the only radical gesture of the moment. Primary Color is back. That's a direction, no?