At the beginning of 2026, Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Christian Dior, invited the brand’s customers to take up reading. This was clearly communicated by bags from the new Dior Book Tote collection: vibrant totes inspired by the covers of first editions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil, James Joyce’s Ulysses, and other classic texts. Anderson’s suggestion is clearly being followed: a book with a beautiful cover (or a bag in the shape of one) is the main fashion accessory of recent years.

You won’t catch Kaia Gerber on vacation without a popular novel, the star of “Stranger Things” Joseph Quinn walks around with a book in his jeans pocket, books unobtrusively appear in the blogs of Reese Witherspoon, Dua Lipa and Kylie Jenner. But do all these people really like to read?

From Performance to Concept

A book in hand or a canvas bag from the non–fiction exhibition, a match and wired headphones—these are the characteristics the Internet has endowed with a new subspecies of performative male, that is, men for show. Role models for such guys are the star of “Euphoria” Jacob Elordi, who even on vacation chooses a collection of essays by the French director and poet Jean Cocteau. The goal is to attract the attention of the opposite sex, because a reading young man looks like an empathetic intellectual. This is also evidenced by the over a million subscribers of the blog hotdudesreading (literally “hot guys reading”), which began with secret photos of men with books and continued with interviews with famous actors about their favorite novels. This interest is easily explained by the words of another literary character, Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch: “Brain is the new sex.” And reading is a clear sign of intelligence.

Jacob Elordi

Of course, it’s not only men and individuals who want to appear smart and sexy, but also brands. And the desire to demonstrate depth of thought can be justified. Jonathan Anderson’s bag collection is based on first edition novels that young audiences might not have heard of, thus serving an educational purpose. Prada is also looking to literature, inviting writer Ottessa Moshfegh to write ten short stories, “10 Protagonists,” for ten looks worn by actress Carey Mulligan in 2025. A year earlier, at a show by another brand, Valentino, guests received a special edition of Hanya Yanagihara’s famous novel, “A Little Life,” and the collection itself was inspired by quotes from the book. Also in 2024, Valentino Garavani sponsored the Booker Prize, a prestigious literary award. It seems the days of the wealthy buying collections of works merely to decorate their offices are over. The ability to look under the cover is encouraged by haute couture and demonstrates, at a minimum, good taste, and, at a maximum, the ability to wisely invest money in a good cause.

And yet, when do all these famous and very busy people have time to read?

Retreats, raves and clubs

The main sign of status in 2025? “A good book,” wrote the travel publication Conde Nast Traveller, introducing an article about book retreats.

In luxuriously furnished hotels and glamping sites, removed from the daily grind and social media, you can fully enjoy a good long novel and then discuss it with fellow escapists. Guests arrive in groups of 12 and read everything from top fashion bestsellers to Harry Potter, depending on the theme of the trip. The goal of the format is to relax and find like-minded people. In an urban environment, you can arrange a similar marathon of unbridled reading at a rave: come to a specially rented room where, in absolute silence, everyone reads their favorite book at their own pace. Rave devotees are unlikely to be able to give a clear answer to the reasonable question, “Why not go to the library?” Apparently, it’s all about the exclusivity of the experience, the buzzword, and the time dedicated specifically to reading.

But the main effect of the exclusivity and uniqueness of the book experience began (and still continues) with the precursor to all retreats—book clubs. Especially those led by celebrities. On various platforms or social media, under the auspices of actresses and influencers, a new book is read every month, discussed, and sometimes even hosted Q&A sessions with the authors themselves. The mastodons of this club scene are Hello Sunshine —from “Big Little Lies” star Reese Witherspoon, and “Oprah’s Book Club”—from Oprah Winfrey herself. The latter has been around for 30 years, and during that time, Oprah’s fans have read over 120 books.

How does the rigorous selection process for the book of the month title take place in such clubs? According to Oprah’s staff, some of the books from the famous TV presenter’s selection end up on her coffee table practically by accident: simply by a friend bringing them home. However, Reese Witherspoon’s company does not accept outside applications and does not recognize pitches from aspiring authors. At the same time, the actress has several full-time employees and book scouts who compile a monthly longlist of 100-150 applicants with brief descriptions of the manuscripts. The chosen book may not only earn a “Reese Witherspoon Choice” sticker but also the potential to be adapted for the screen: the actress most often reads novels she’d like to produce herself, and she tests her favorite plots on her loyal readership. Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere,” Delia Owens’s “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Kristin Hannah’s “The Nightingale,” Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Romantic Comedy,” and many other novels have been reviewed by Reese’s book club. The first two have already been released, and the last are in pre-production.

Dua Lipa is also building her media empire on her love of books, creating not only her club but also a cultural portal of the same name, Service95 (the brand employs approximately 4-5 people). Between musical tours, the Albanian-born singer enjoys reading Eastern European, Mexican, and South African literature, and she interviews many authors herself. “Is it just us, or is Dua Lipa the best literary interviewer right now?” wrote the British Guardian after a video conversation between the singer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz. Dua has also already managed to talk with Olga Tokarczuk, George Sanders and Margaret Atwood, and the number of views of these interviews is no less than the number of views of the writers’ broadcasts on larger video shows.

Kaia Gerber

Perhaps we are all united in this desire. It is no wonder that the number of readers (and not only performative ones) is growing. Moreover, sometimes this love unites hearts, as happened with Dua Lipa: at a party in Los Angeles, the singer saw her future lover, actor Callum Turner, holding a copy of Hernan Diaz’s “Trust.” They both finished reading it at the same chapter and quickly concluded that they were definitely on the same page—literally on the same wavelength. Finding ourselves on the same wavelength of love for reading – isn’t that the perfect plan?

Text: Veronica Chugunkina