Jil Sander’s new creative director reinterprets the house’s legacy with a proposal charged with contrasts and sensory precision.
At the epicentre of Milanese design, Simone Bellotti unveiled his first collection for Jil Sander, marking a pivotal milestone in the journey of the house founded by the “queen of minimalism”. Far from grand gestures, the show was staged at the brand’s historic Milan headquarters, a former cinema transformed into a stark three-storey building, a space not revisited since 2017. There, between white walls and a runway framed by black arches, the electronic sounds of Bochum Welt set the ideal backdrop for a debut that felt more like reflection than proclamation.
Bellotti framed his premiere as an exercise in questions: can subtraction add up to more? Can restraint coexist with character? From these provocations, he built a narrative of contrasts: rigour with grace, structure with lightness, severity with freedom. The SS26 collection not only pays tribute to the house’s legacy, but challenges it in depth. Minimalism, in his hands, becomes fertile ground for reinvention.
The silhouette remains vertical, rational, true to the DNA of Jil Sander. Yet buttoned-up blazers and sharply tailored coats blur into raw hems and unexpected folds. Dresses and skirts with strips of floating georgette evoke pages fluttering in the wind. Double-faced wool and leather, solid in appearance, move with an unanticipated lightness. Knitwear and sporty shirts hint at agility, creating a dialogue between discipline and fluidity.
In the tactile sphere, Bellotti dares to experiment: technical fabrics with a clinical shine contrast with delicate floral motifs. Transparency exposes the body, while mirrored leather and sequin armours suggest protection and vulnerability in equal measure. Duality — between opaque and shiny, rigid and soft — becomes constant, as though the collection exists in a limbo between past and present, between Milan and Hamburg.
One of the strongest gestures was the fusion of masculine and feminine lines. The visual language is shared across genders: from blazers to fluid silks, Bellotti dissolves barriers and proposes a common, coherent, elegant aesthetic. Shapes migrate from one line to the other, as if the house spoke with a single voice.
Accessories anchor this vision. Square-toed shoes, ballerinas with unexpected cuts, brogues with low heels: each step balances utility and beauty. Sandals and the new Pivot bag, with its curved yet functional silhouette, underline the conceptual clarity of the collection. Every detail responds to an essential question: what does a modern uniform look like without losing identity?
Simone Bellotti’s debut does not impose, it explores. It is a statement of intent that is serious yet playful, rigorous yet open to change. By redefining minimalism through contradiction and poetic gesture, Bellotti proves that the future of Jil Sander can be introspective but never flat. It is only the beginning of an evolution that promises subtlety, intelligence and depth.
