Cover An example of how fashion and literature collides: the Dior Book Tote Club with Natalie Portman. (Photo: Marion Berrin/ Bibliothèque de l’institut national de l’histoire de l’art / INHA - Salle Labrouste)
An example of how fashion and literature collides: the Dior Book Tote Club with Natalie Portman. (Photo: Marion Berrin/ Bibliothèque de l’institut national de l’histoire de l’art / INHA - Salle Labrouste)
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Book clubs, literary salons, and author collaborations are no longer confined to academia. The connection between fashion and literature deepens, with houses like Miu Miu, Chanel, and Prada turning to storytelling as a form of cultural capital to deepen brand identity and cultivate community
Once the preserve of universities, bookworms, and wine-soaked Sunday afternoons, the literary club is being reimagined by luxury fashion houses as a new kind of cultural accessory. As considered consumption and narrative-led branding take centre stage, brands like Miu Miu, Chanel, and Prada are embracing the idea of “community with depth”—transforming book clubs into portals of world-building and cultural cachet.
Luxury’s literary turn is perhaps most visible in the rise of brand-led book clubs and salons. Miu Miu’s Literary Club, for instance, champions women authors in intellectually engaging, thematically driven gatherings. Its most recent, and second, edition, held on April 9 and 10, explored “A Woman’s Education”. Day one, themed “The Power of Girlhood”, focused on The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir; day two, “About Love, Sex and Desire”, centred on The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi. Both texts illuminated the power of literature as a means for women to articulate the unspoken and subversive.
Curated by writer and researcher Olga Campofreda, the two-day programme featured an international panel of authors examining how literature shapes perceptions of womanhood across cultures. French-American author Lauren Elkin, whose Flâneuse was a finalist for the Pen/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, joined 2022 International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree, Italian novelist Veronica Raimo, and debut British writer Nicola Dinan. Their collective reflections traversed the philosophical and the personal, turning each panel into a transnational exploration of identity, power and the female voice.
These dialogues were further enhanced by poetry readings and live performances, reinforcing literature as a lived and sensorial experience.
In a complementary gesture, Miu Miu’s Summer Reads Project distributed iconic works by female authors—Alba de Céspedes, Sibilla Aleramo, and Jane Austen—in branded packaging across eight global cities at custom-designed newsstands and specially constructed pop-up locations last year. It was a nod to literary legacy and a reaffirmation of Miu Miu’s role in amplifying female perspectives in contemporary culture.
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Above Kai Isaiah Jama, Nicola Dinan, Naoise Dolan, Sarah Manguso. Photo: Miu Miu
Above Bluem at the Miu Miu Literary Club. Photo: Miu Miu
Kai Isaiah Jama, Nicola Dinan, Naoise Dolan, Sarah Manguso. Photo: Miu Miu
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Where Miu Miu builds new spaces for dialogue, Chanel draws from a deeply rooted literary heritage. For the house founded by Gabrielle Chanel—who counted Pierre Reverdy, Jean Cocteau, and Colette among her close confidants—literature was both a refuge and a source of creative fuel. Today, that private passion has evolved into a public-facing programme of salons, author initiatives, and cultural patronage that continues to honour Chanel’s belief in the transformative power of the written word.
Les Rendez-vous Littéraires Rue Cambon, launched in 2021 and hosted by house ambassador Charlotte Casiraghi in the refined salons of the maison’s Rue Cambon locale, brings together women writers, academics, creatives,and friends of the brand for intimate salons and podcast episodes. Discussions span both personal works and major literary figures, interwoven with curated questionnaires, personal reading lists, and glimpses into the libraries of Chanel insiders.
Beyond salons, Chanel champions emerging voices. Its podcast series Les Rencontres spotlights debut female authors like Abigail Assor and Cécile Pin. In addition, a new literary prize, supported by Chanel in collaboration with weekly French news magazine Nouvel Obs and to be awarded in June 2025, will fund the second novel of a rising writer—cementing the brand’s ongoing commitment to the literary arts.
Dior, on the other hand, reframes the relationship between fashion and literature through objects and memories—most notably, the Book Tote, which has become a canvas for personal identity. A video series titled Dior Book Tote Club invites friends of the house—such as Natalie Portman, South African operatic soprano and documentary film producer, director, and House ambassador, Beatrice Borromeo—to share how certain books shaped their lives. Here, literature becomes an accessory to personal identity, aligning seamlessly with Dior’s vision of cultivated self-expression.
If Dior’s approach is introspective, Prada’s is imaginative and boldly narrative. Its Spring/Summer 2025 campaign blurred the boundaries between fashion and fiction. Rather than simply drawing inspiration from literature, the house commissioned acclaimed novelist Ottessa Moshfegh to create ten original characters—among them, a romantic programmer, twin vampires, and a solitary puppeteer. Each was imagined with distinct traits, talents, and inner agency, then brought to life through the silhouettes, fabrics, and moods of the collection.
Above Dior Book Tote Club with Natalie Portman. (Photo: Marion Berrin/Bibliothèque de l’institut national de l’histoire de l’art / INHA - Salle Labrouste)
Dior Book Tote Club with Natalie Portman. (Photo: Marion Berrin/Bibliothèque de l’institut national de l’histoire de l’art / INHA - Salle Labrouste)
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Valentino’s engagement with literature is equally intentional, but cemented in a different tradition. In 2021, the maison launched its Narratives campaign under former creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. The first chapter saw a collaboration with Belletrist, the book club founded by actress Emma Roberts, resulting in a text-only advertising campaign featuring original stories by nine contemporary authors. These were displayed in independent bookstores across the US, transforming retail spaces into literary showcases.
The second chapter expanded the initiative with contributions from celebrated writers like Michael Cunningham, Hanif Kureishi, and Serang Chung. Each of the 17 authors were invited to create a word-only campaign layout.
In its most recent iteration, Valentino partnered with Dream Baby Press, a New York-based collective known for hosting readings in unconventional spaces, to present a series of handwritten love letters. These were displayed in select boutiques across Europe and the US, and featured voices such as Coco Mellors and Jerry Stahl.
Bottega Veneta, in contrast, approached the literary world not through authorship, but through place. In 2022, the brand collaborated with The Strand, New York’s iconic independent bookstore, to create a limited-edition series of leather totes. The Strand’s logo was reimagined in the house’s signature intrecciato weave, bringing together the tactility of craftsmanship with the nostalgia of street-level culture.
To mark the launch, the house hosted a private gathering at The Strand, attended by fifty figures from the city’s literary, fashion, and cultural circles. Former creative director Matthieu Blazy also curated a list of his favourite titles—books that had influenced his creative outlook—which were made available at the bookstore.
Above Bottega Veneta’s 2022 collaboration with The Strand
Bottega Veneta’s 2022 collaboration with The Strand
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This renewed engagement with the literary world is also playing out across recent runway collections. In Fall 2024, Anna Sui drew inspiration from Agatha Christie’s beloved detective Miss Marple, reinterpreting the character’s prim eccentricity through whimsical silhouettes and vintage textures. For his debut collection at Fendi, Kim Jones looked to Orlando (1928), Virginia Woolf’s genre-defying novel of identity and transformation, translating its fluid sensibility into silhouettes that transcended time and gender. Thom Browne’s Fall/Winter 2024–2025 show channelled the gothic realm of Edgar Allan Poe, with an eerie, theatrical set and actress Carrie Coon performing The Raven live.
Beyond individual seasons, the canon of Western literature continues to ripple through fashion’s imagination. From Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, these seminal works have provided a visual and conceptual blueprint for countless collections—inviting designers to reimagine the fantastical, the romantic, and the monstrous through couture.
Fashion has always borrowed from fiction, but today, it writes its own. Through salons and campaigns, characters and collaborations, the industry is composing something more lasting than seasonal trends. It’s crafting a new kind of legacy—one woven in the stories we carry with us.
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Nafeesa Saini is the Features Editor at Tatler Singapore, where she shapes long-form stories on culture, business, philanthropy, wellness, and the people driving change in Asia. With a deep interest in storytelling that intersects meaningfully with identity and impact, she has profiled a diverse range of visionaries, from scientific pioneers in AI and health to creative trailblazers and literary minds.
Nafeesa’s writing includes cover stories and profiles that spotlight influential voices, alongside commentary on the trends reshaping our world.
Off the clock, Nafeesa unwinds with fiction, a good thrift hunt, and ‘brainrot’ TikTok scroll—while always keeping one eye on her next cultural getaway, usually to Indonesia.
