>> Monday evening came an announcement that surely knocked more than one avid fashion follower out of their chair — Jil Sander is coming back to fashion as creative consultant to Japanese brand Uniqlo.  We've got the who and the what, but as for the how, Fast Retailing executives (from Uniqlo's parent company) fill us in.

Apparently the company has been pursuing Sander since last June and didn't have any other candidates for the role — she's the “top of the top,” according to chairman Tadashi Yanai, who credited her with inventing the "modern basic."  Sander, for her part, says she had received “a lot of offers from many companies” since leaving the fashion world, but she ended up deciding to try something “completely different” and work exclusively for the Japanese label.

One detail we still don't know?  How long Sander and Uniqlo expect to collaborate: executives declined to specify the duration of the contract.
*image: source