It is often said that true minimalism is not the absence of detail, but the mastery of it. At Simone Bellotti’s debut Jil Sander collection, the restraint was not only in the clothes: it was in the architecture of the entire experience. The show space, stripped to white and punctuated only by sinuous flashes of black, mirrored the purity of the garments themselves. It felt futuristic, cohesive, and all-encompassing, as though the world outside Piazza Castello had been momentarily muted in favour of Bellotti’s vision.
What impressed most was how deftly drama was introduced without disturbing the equilibrium. The leatherwork in particular carried incredible weight. Most notably, a shocking blue jacket-cum-dress brought a sculptural sharpness that cut decisively through the quietude. This was not minimalism diluted into blandness; it was minimalism honed to a blade.
Colour, too, played its part. Where one might expect the monochrome rigour of classic Jil, Bellotti surprised with jolts of bold, bright hues – electric blues, fire reds – that gave the collection its pulse. Without them, the risk was flatness; with them, the collection breathed with life and tension.
Silhouette was perhaps Bellotti’s greatest success. Ruffled, cinched waists redefined proportion, carving volume and movement into the clean lines. They felt like punctuation marks, moments of heightened expression, that enlivened the pared-back narrative. It is here that Bellotti’s sensitivity shone: never over-embellishing, always allowing shape itself to generate interest.
What makes this debut resonate is not its novelty, but its conviction. Bellotti is not rewriting Sander’s codes; he is amplifying them, returning to the founding principle that simplicity, if wielded with precision, is never simple at all.
In Dazed, Isobel van Dyke likened the collection to the work of Yves Klein – the way a single colour, an ultramarine, could hold the weight of freedom. I couldn’t agree more. Here, it is a leather silhouette, a burst of vermillion, a cinched waist: all small acts of choice carrying immense consequence.
Minimalism is back in fashion, though perhaps it never truly left. In a season set to roar with maximalist bravado elsewhere, Bellotti’s quiet beginning at Jil Sander felt like the kind of whisper one leans in to hear, and, once heard, cannot forget.