Sept. 24, 2025

Pure Sensuality: The New Jil Sander by Simone Bellotti

WORDS ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN

JIL SANDER

Anders Christian Madsen reviews Simone Bellotti’s debut collection for Jil Sander, for Spring/Summer 2026.

The show space within Jil Sander’s headquarters in Via Luca Beltrami is like a massive microscope. Optically white and clinically lit, it reveals and magnifies every seam and stitch that walk through the room. You need the confidence of a surgeon to perform in these surroundings. Perhaps Simone Bellotti was a doctor in a previous life. The former Bally designer’s debut collection for Jil Sander was an impressive demonstration of precision executed with soul, every silhouette literally cut like a second physique around the models’ bodies.

“The first part was inspired by modern armor, so I started by working on these corners and angles,” Bellotti said after the show, referring to fabric and leather coats sculpted with knightly round shoulders and pannier-like rounded hips that echoed the metal peplum of armor. Slowly, he started slicing up his pristine silhouettes, cutting into the perfect form with slashes that revealed the body and generated a sense of soul. “And then it was more and more, revealing the body,” he continued. “I hope in a good way.”

JIL SANDER

JIL SANDER

Indeed. What ensued was a study of soulful minimalism: metallics that crushed on the body with movement; intensely colored sheer garments that wrapped and caressed the physique; coats ruched at the center back seam to cuddle the waist; and millefeuille embroideries that adorned the fronts of dresses and looked like you’d cut through the pages of a book. There was a sensuality and sensitivity to Bellotti’s cutting that isn’t done justice by runway pictures. The way these clothes moved, their three-dimensionality, the way the colors punched through the whiteness of it all… it was often exhilarating.

“Studying the brand, finding the balance between structure and tailoring and classicism. Modernity and lightness, trying to reveal the body in a subtle way,” he said of his creative process. “It’s a brand that you need to learn, where you go deeper,” Bellotti continued. “I think [Jil Sander’s] way of revealing was always very elegant. It’s not easy to do it. That’s why I’m trying to learn.” Judging from this student’s first proposal, you wouldn’t be surprised if he makes valedictorian.