Thursday night saw the opening of the newest Jil Sander boutique on the corner of Howard and Crosby. Across the street from Opening Ceremony, the new Jil Sander store — which opened to the public this morning — is the first ‘true’ Jil Sander store since Jil left the label nearly four years ago; that is to say that although certainly not the first store opened since her leave, it marks the first that is truly a part of the vision of venerated creative director Raf Simons, who has designed the label since 2005.

The 6,300 square-foot two-level space is sparsely but meticulously decorated, with the entire first floor being devoted to only six mannequins and no racks (even as one moves up to the second level, the presentation is consistently more ‘gallery’ than ‘store’). The space was co-designed by Dutch artist Germaine Kruip, who impressed Simons several years ago with her mirrored mobile that abused standard notions of reflective surfaces to induce a play on nature light and perspective; ideas such as these were natural progressions used to evoke not only the stark modernity of Raf Simons’ design, but also the striking minimalism of the Jil Sander house. Thus mirrors were heavily utilized in the store space — in the windows, on the wall, along the staircase, as dressing rooms — alongside a matte steal and, most beautifully, a black and white marble from which the majority of the store was constructed (a clear and direct reference to Raf’s most recent Fall/Winter collection for Jil, selections of which were on display). These few and specific materials were chosen by Simons and Kruip to give downtown shoppers the unique experience and sensation that is the new Jil Sander; and further, to afford the opportunity of an easily reconstituted space — and thus make their downtown space a vacillating, organic monument to the names Jil Sander and Raf Simons.

The incredibly sparse entranceway.

The second floor wall of constantly shifting mirrors.

F/W 2008 menswear; notice the marble motif.

One of many incredible pairs of shoes for F/W.

The dressing rooms are movable mirrored cubes.

The view of the second floor from the staircase.

Glenn O’Brien and his wife Gina Nanni.

Justin Violini, dressed in Jil Sander head to toe.