JIL SANDER, WHEN MINIMALISM STOPS BEING RIGOR AND BECOMES MOVEMENT

This morning Jil Sander presented in Milan its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, women’s and men’s, designed by Simone Bellotti. The show was scheduled at 10:30 on the second day of Milan Fashion Week.

I chose these looks because, looking at them, the direction Bellotti is giving the house seems clear to me. Jil Sander’s minimalism remains, but it is no longer just subtraction. It gains volume, movement, a few deliberate imperfections. It is a purity that does not give up the ability to surprise.

The grey coat perhaps expresses this idea better than any other piece. A wide, almost severe line, an essential construction, very few visible elements. And yet you only need to look at the proportions, the way it falls on the body and the pairing with very pale tights and almost old-fashioned feminine shoes to understand that behind that simplicity there is precise work. In the men’s look the same principle becomes darker and more vertical: an overcoat and wide trousers build a lean, contemporary figure, with no need to add anything else.

Then the yellow arrives and completely changes the register. A dress that seems built directly through the fabric: large amounts of material wrap the body, fall from the shoulders, gather at the front and open up again. It is not the color doing all the work. It is the volume. And precisely within a house identified for decades with minimalism, this controlled abundance becomes even more interesting.

I was also struck by the very pale, almost impalpable dress. Here Bellotti works in exactly the opposite way: sheer fabrics, gathers, layering and a construction that follows the body without imprisoning it. The black men’s shoes beneath such a light dress deliberately break any romantic temptation. It is one of those details that make you understand the collection is not looking for an easy kind of beauty.

And then there is that almost unexpected encounter between the bright, textured top, crossed by green, red and metallic reflections, and the skirt built like a landscape. It is probably the look furthest from the conventional image many people still have of Jil Sander. That is precisely why it works: it shows that a strong identity can afford to step outside its own boundaries without losing recognizability.

Finally, the light blue shirt with the white miniskirt. Seemingly nothing could be simpler. But it is the proportions that transform it: the men’s shirt, the clean-cut skirt, the grey tights and that white shoe with a small heel and a bow. Almost a uniform, but completely rewritten.

When he joined Jil Sander, Bellotti had already spoken of seeking a balance between structure, tailoring and classicism on one side, and modernity and lightness on the other. It is a path that began with his debut for the house in 2025 and that today appears freer.

This is what I find interesting about today’s Jil Sander: it does not destroy minimalism, it sets it in motion. The rigor remains, but it is no longer a cage. The body enters the project, the fabric breathes, color breaks the silence. And when a brand manages to change without losing its own grammar, then change truly begins to make sense.

GALLERY