Milan Fashion Week: Jil Sander autumn/winter 2013

Jil Sander is always so nervous backstage that it seems almost cruel to try and coax her to talk about her collection. She hadn't slept all night and she was finding her job a challenge, she said. "It's very hard when you start all over again somewhere".

Sander certianly doesn't need to be angst racked about her creativity. Like her come-back show last season, this was another filled with delecatable, wearable yet forward-looking minimalist clothes. Midi skirts with subtle fishtail hem details, flared jackets with (flared) sleeves and upsized, double-ply, single breasted, knee-covering coats that didn't slavishly ape Céline's were just some of the ways she brought a freshness to the genre. A designer not plugging their antennae into Phoebe Philo's radio frequency? That in itself is a hold-the-front-page moment.

IN PICTURES: Jil Sander autumn/winter 2013

But then Sander practically invented minimalist clothing as we know it. The fact that 40 years on, she's still refining and re-inventing it is pretty astonishing. It's fascinating too, watching this designer, who made the principles of pared back taste accessible to the masses when she was at Uniqlo, recalibrate it for the luxury market. Her colours were exceptional: clementine, custard-yellows, charcoals, electric blue, mixed with navy, mole-brown and black.

These you won't find on the high street. "I looked at Tibetan colours and took it from there, " she explained. There included a feminine twist that's currently lacking from so many designers on the Céline track. Sander's bias cut midis, ankle skimming trousers, strapless dresses and elongated jumpers, bisected by a single painterly stroke of gold paint (single is the new multiple), were both understated, yet in their way, romantic. The set, which was inspired by a diamond shape was, whether consciously or not, the perfect metaphor for this collection. "Diamonds can go either way," she said. "They can be cut in a very vulgar way or they can be the most quietly beautiful of stones". Like these clothes: gilded, luxurious and dreamy to wear.

Raf Simons, Sander's predecessor, was often frustrated while at the company at the way his lauded collections scarcely made it into the stores. If JIl Sander's management doesn't put this collection into production and make it widely available, there's something wrong with their business model.

All the latest from Milan Fashion Week autumn/winter 2013

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