Jil Sander library install

Jil Sander opened a temporary reading room at its Milan headquarters on April 20, turning Design Week foot traffic into a library visit. (wwd.com) The installation, called “Reference Library,” runs through April 24 at Via Luca Beltrami 5, the same showroom where Simone Bellotti has staged the brand’s ready-to-wear shows since his debut last year. Bellotti told WWD visitors should expect “a very different atmosphere” from those runway events. (wwd.com) Jil Sander developed the project with biannual interiors and culture magazine Apartamento and Milan architecture studio studioutte. The exhibition centers on 60 books chosen by 60 creatives from art, film, music, design and fashion, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Celine Song, Faye Toogood and Lykke Li. (wwd.com) The setup is closer to a study hall than a product launch. Brera Design Week says chrome-plated reading lamps are arranged in rows and reflected by a mirrored wall, while ANSA reported that visitors receive white gloves to handle the books. (breradesignweek.it) (ansa.it) Bellotti framed the project as a “book club,” not a furniture fair booth or a fashion spectacle. In WWD’s interview, he said the point was to create a space where people could spend time with the references that shape creative work. (wwd.com) That fits the way Milan Design Week has expanded beyond chairs, lamps and kitchens into branded cultural programming across the city. Fuorisalone listed Jil Sander’s library among the week’s public events, placing a fashion label’s reading room inside the same circuit as design installations and showroom takeovers. (fuorisalone.it) For Jil Sander, the timing is also about Bellotti’s first full year in the job. The Design Release notes he has led the brand since March 2025, after OTB Fashion Group acquired Jil Sander in 2021. (thedesignrelease.com) The guest list of contributors signals the brand’s pitch: fashion can borrow authority from publishing, architecture, cinema and contemporary art without putting a handbag on every pedestal. Hypebeast’s preview described the project as a push against “digital skimming,” with books by contributors including Ronan Bouroullec, Jasper Morrison and Bellotti himself. (hypebeast.com) By the end of the week, the takeaway is less about what Jil Sander sold in Milan than what it asked visitors to do there: sit down, put on gloves and read. (ansa.it)