Inside the Jil Sander Book Club to Bow at Milan Design Week

MILAN — “Expect a very different atmosphere compared to those of the fashion shows,” said Simone Bellotti about stepping into Jil Sander‘s pristine headquarters during Milan Design Week.

The brand’s creative director is to unveil his first project developed for the design event under the OTB label, which will take place in the location where he’s been parading his ready-to-wear collections since his debut last year.

This time, the minimal off-white space overlooking the landmark Sforzesco medieval castle will be revisited to house “Reference Library,” an exhibition featuring books selected by 60 international creatives hailing from different fields.

Developed with biannual publication Apartamento and Milanese architectural practice Studioutte, the project will open on Monday and run through April 24.

A certain solemnity is poised to mark the activation, elevating the experience to a ritual. Visitors will access the brand’s historic showroom, where chrome lecterns will stand in rows, each one pooled in a warm reading beam, in an overall space conceived for the pleasure of looking closely and taking time to take a break from the frenzy outside.

Upon registration, with 60 slots available per hour, visitors will be invited into the library and given a pair of white gloves before being able to consult the tomes and read the accompanying texts that explain each talent’s reasoning behind the choice and interpretation. 

“I’m curious to see what kind of effect it will have on the audience,” Bellotti told WWD ahead of the opening.

Different elements interweave in the project, ranging from a desire for an IRL experience to consume culture rather than via a screen to enhance community building and propel cultural exchange. While during design week many brands focus on products and the final result of their creative process, the company’s aim was to spotlight what might stand behind it, highlighting the sources of inspiration that have influenced and shaped the approach of a pool of writers, designers and artists, among others.

Bellotti recalled what sparked the idea last September while he was talking with his longtime friend Marco Velardi, one of Apartamento’s founders. “I thought it was a beautiful way to connect so many people, to create a dialogue and real exchange, which is essential today.”

They also put together the list of participants, who include the likes of Swiss curator and critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, British artist Faye Toogood, designer Jasper Morrison, architect Anne Holtrop, Swedish indie pop artist Lykke Li, Academy Award-nominated costume designer Miyako Bellizzi and American singer and cellist Kelsey Lu, to name a few.

“It’s true that fashion has become mainstream, but Milan Design Week has been able through the years to become a bigger pole, attracting so many people of different disciplines,” said Bellotti, enthusing about the participation of the names reached. 

As for their reading picks, Bellotti candidly said he didn’t know many of the titles that will be showcased in the exhibition. Even for the books he was familiar with, he got the chance to see them in a new light, pointing as example to director Celine Song’s choice of “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind, which Bellotti read years ago.

As for his own contribution, the designer zeroed in on the 1957 novel “II Barone Rampante,” or “The Baron in the Trees” in English, by Italo Calvino. This stands as a metaphor for independence, as it narrates the adventures of Cosimo, who climbs into the trees to spend the rest of his life observing the world with more clarity than those living below. 

“I played it safe, this is a book so engrained in collective memory,” quipped Bellotti, who first read the novel in his 20s. He even has named one of his two cats after its protagonist.

“It’s narrated in a truly unique way. It’s extremely profound, but also written with a very ironic and fantastical tone. What I like about it is how it describes the way of seeing things…how sometimes we need to observe what happens around us from a more personal perspective. Not to always conform but to maintain our own opinion and viewpoint,” Bellotti said. 

The designer is currently reading a collection of letters penned by Mark Rothko, which he picked up after visiting the buzzy exhibition Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi dedicated to the artist in Florence and on display until Aug. 23. “I’ve just started reading it, but it’s very interesting because he explains his creative evolution and the reasons that led him to undertake a certain type of artistic language,” he said.

Bellotti aims “Reference Library” to spark similar conversations IRL. “I like the analogic aspect of it all. How we reached out to people, talked with them and put a sort of real research engine together,” he said. “I’m under the impression that today reality has become extraordinary, that even the things we have always seen as normal feel extraordinary now, don’t you?”

The white gloves handed to visitors are to cheekily point to the sacredness of the moment, inviting the audience to be present and handle books with care. While the titles will be available only for consultation, the gloves will be for each reader to keep — a souvenir of time well spent.