What better way to kick off the summer than by choosing the books that will keep you company, on the beach, in the mountains, or simply relaxing at home? Organized thematically, from Power & Dystopia, to Freedom & Resistance, and Art, Culture & Travel, some of the leading voices of Polimoda and the fashion industry share what they’ll be reading this season. Enjoy, and happy reading!
POWER & DYSTOPIA
MASSIMILIANO GIORNETTI
Director of Polimoda
- Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (1951)
“In such a fraught geopolitical landscape, rereading this novel feels illuminating. Through her protagonist, the author shows us the idea of governance not as brute force, but as an ethical duty, a pursuit of justice and the building of a better society. Perhaps it’s a utopian vision for a moment like this, but it’s illuminating all the same, exploring the sense of time, old age, pain, and the acceptance of death with the writer’s characteristic clarity.
Rereading this book moves me, and rediscovering the value of intense feelings, like a love of beauty and philosophy, is deeply rewarding.”
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
“This is one of the most compelling books in the dystopian genre. It overturns our understanding of themes tied to totalitarian regimes, themes that remain painfully relevant today. The book is set in an unspecified future where the worst crime a person can commit is owning, or even reading, books.
There’s a dedicated division within the fire department whose job is to burn any books they can find. Among them, the protagonist Guy begins reading a few books himself. He can’t make sense of this law, and sets out to save not just the books, but the entire world.
A hymn to freedom of thought and action.”
MARIALISA CORNACCHIA
Head of Polimoda Library
- The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius (121 AD)
“The first is an account that borders on gossip about the great Roman emperors, written in the 2nd century AD: it captures both the virtues but above all the flaws of those who reached the height of power and shaped our civilization. In the end, they were just men, with their own miseries, big and small, their passions and interests. It’s a great book that teaches you how to look at power, and at a world that, however ancient, feels very close to our own. It’s perfect for summer because it’s an easy, light, quick read (despite its roughly 400 pages): it’s like looking at the ancient world through a keyhole and discovering that history can be told in so many different ways.”
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
“The second book is a great classic of contemporary world literature: a fierce satire of conformism, of intellectuals shut away in their own world, of a certain idea of culture and civilization. But at the same time, it’s one of the most romantic love stories ever written, a visionary book that lets the imagination fly and conjures up worlds where otherwise only grey and flatness exist. This summer I’ll be reading it for the third time, after having also seen both film adaptations (one Italian, and one that came out last year). But every time I hold this book in my hands, I find a new world inside myself, and with it, a continual discovery of my own intellectual limits, and of how it’s my duty to overcome them.”
FREEDOM & RESISTANCE
STEFANO FILIPPELLI
Global Vice President of Product for adidas Originals Apparel and Accessories, Mentor of the Master in Fashion Brand Management
- Love saves the day by Tim Lawrence (2003)
“I’m reading this on the beach this year. A seminal study on the evolution of dance music in American culture. A story of resistance and freedom. It’s a re-read and I can’t wait to start. As part of my research journey on music, aggregation and expression, this book is a cornerstone. I am reading it because now more than ever the world needs courageous people to stand for their ideals and to feel free to express themselves, and this book narrates stories of emancipation that will inspire me again.”
LITERARY CLASSICS
LUKE AND LUCIE MEIER
Creative Directors, Mentors of the Undergraduate in Fashion Design – Final Year 2026
Lucie Meier
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
“I like to read this book again every once in a while as I always like the writing style and the youthful attitude.”
Luke Meier
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996)
“I’m reading it again as it helps to explain our world.”
ARINA KUZMICH
- Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust (1913)
“Currently I’m reading Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, the first volume of In Search of Lost Time. It’s not an easy read at all, but discovering just how much we still have in common with French society of the early 20th Century feels anything but faraway right now. I have a soft spot for French literature and its focus on thought process and the inner workings of the human mind rendering it, for the first time in modern and mainstream literature, as important as the plot. Sometimes I catch myself thinking: “God, I’ve thought about this too.”
The book brought to the fore the concept of involuntary memory, and by stringing them together one after another into the narrative, you find yourself immersed not so much in the plot as in the mind of a single character, which becomes a storyline on its own.”
RECLAIMED PERSPECTIVES
ISABELLA ROSE DAVEY
Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Copenhagen Fashion Week, Mentor of the Master in Fashion Marketing and Communications
- How to Make a Woman by Marie Darrieussecq (2024)
- Two Women by Jacqueline Rose (2026)
- Golden Crumbs by Mary Ruffle (2026)
“This spring I started a book collective called Conch Books: since its inception we have created all manner of gatherings, with a host of exciting projects on the horizon. One of our incredibly supportive collaborators is Fitzcarraldo Editions, who kindly gifted these three books, with How To Make A Woman to be one of our book clubs in the coming months. They have impeccable taste for brilliant writers, so I am excited to get my teeth into these three titles.”
CLARA HIPÓLITO
Undergraduate in Fashion Design student
- The White Album by Joan Didion (1979)
“I’m about to start The White Album by Joan Didion. For years, when I picked up a book, I always tried to go for the classics, and I think like lots of other people, I like to trust universal opinion and read people’s all time favourite books. Right around starting Polimoda I realised most of the books I was getting recommended and reading were written by men and it was hard to ignore how misogynistic male-centered perspectives seemed to be acceptable as long as they were accompanied by a good story. I’ve since begun to only pick up books written by women (at least for now), and I’m excited to read my first Joan Didion! I try not to learn too much about a book before I read it but I know it’s about California in the 60s/70s, and I think that’ll be really interesting to see through a woman’s eyes!
Oh and a friend gave me this Sudoku book that she said was too hard to complete, so obviously I accepted the challenge.”
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
RICCARDO RINALDI
Undergraduate in Fashion Business student
- The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis (2023)
“The Shards is a stylish, provocative and addictive blend of 80’s Los Angeles glamour and psychological suspense. Desire, obsession and sex under the sun-soaked California sky. The kind of autobiographical fiction that makes summer feel dangerously hot.”
ART, CULTURE & TRAVEL
AURORA FIORENTINI
Fashion and Costume Historian, Teacher at Polimoda
- The Unfinished Palazzo: Life, Art, and Loves of Three Women in Venice by Judith Mackrell (2018)
- Art Will Survive Its Ruins (original title: L’art survivra à ses ruines) by Anselm Kiefer (2011)
“In Art Will Survive Its Ruins, Anselm Kiefer engages with one of the most profound and universal themes in the history of art and culture: the endurance of human creation through time, even in the face of destruction, decay, and oblivion. Published in 2022, the book represents a summation of the German artist’s thinking, whose work has always been marked by an ongoing reflection on memory, the ruins of history, and art’s capacity to transform destruction into new life.”
- The American Italian Dream (Reclaiming the Future: A Manifesto for an Italy That Stops Mourning the Past and Starts Imagining Again) by Alec Ross (2026)
“The book moves along two parallel tracks: on one hand, the author’s personal narrative — an American political analyst and professor who has also lived in Italy for years, recalling his travels, encounters, lectures, and life experiences — and on the other, a broad, in-depth analysis of the cultural, economic, and social knots holding Italy back: distrust, fear of risk, nostalgia for the past.
Eight pairs of opposites become the axes around which Ross builds a reflection that is deep yet accessible, never academic, and full of civic energy. Ross doesn’t idealize Italy, but he doesn’t condemn it either: he questions it, provokes it, and ultimately speaks to it. It’s an invitation to rediscover the taste for vision, to dream big again, and to believe that a different Italy is not only desirable, but possible.”
FELIPE OLIVEIRA BAPTISTA
- Unquiet by Linn Ullmann (2015)
- Magellan by Stefan Zweig (1938)
“This summer I picked some of my books according to my holiday destinations. I’m going to Sweden and Cabo Verde, so I wanted my reading to reflect those journeys.
For Sweden, I chose Unquiet by Linn Ullmann, the daughter of one of my favourite directors, Ingmar Bergman. I’ve long wanted to read her moving account of her relationship with her father and of the summers they spent on the island of Fårö.
My second pick is Magellan by Stefan Zweig. As I’m travelling to Cabo Verde, it felt like the perfect companion for a visit to the Atlantic archipelago discovered by Portuguese navigators in the fifteenth century.”
WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK
- Ovartaci, the Signature of Madness by Brian Benjamin Hansen (2022)
“I am reading this book about OVARTACI right now. He is an amazing OUTSIDER artist, With an unbelievable/dramatic life. I have seen exhibitions from his work, and I am fascinated by his ‘paintings’ which are AMAZING.”
PERSONAL GROWTH & MINDSET
PAOLO CIGOGNINI
Senior Vice President of Global Communications and Media at Tom Ford, Mentor of the Undergraduate in Fashion Business
- Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament by Micheal A. Singer (2022)
OLYA KURYSHCHUK
Founder & Editor-in-Chief at 1 Granary
- Mindset by Carol Dweck (2006)
“For anyone who’s creative, I highly recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck as the best summer read. Even though it’s not really about fashion, it’s much more useful to designers than a lot of books that are fashion-focused. It prepares you for rejection and failure, and teaches you how to grow from setbacks. Fashion is an industry that’s built on constant public judgment, and Mindset helps you learn how to survive that, without collapsing or becoming a designer who finds it impossible to deal with critique”
LIGHTHEARTED READS
PHOEBE OWSTON
Editor of Polimoda’s Journal
- Favole al telefono (Telephone Tales) by Gianni Rodari (1962)
“Summer is a time to pause and switch off. This is a collection of invented children’s fables, by writer, journalist, and educator, Gianni Rodari. Many Italian children grew up on these tales that are laugh out loud funny, while often having a touching or poignant message behind them. They are a great insight into the Italian psyche; as an ‘insider – outsider’ here for the last eight years, I reach for things that help me understand the country I’ve decided to call home. The light-hearted silliness of these stories, which include a whole town devouring a palazzo entirely made out of gelato, a tiny sea boy who lives inside a fish, and a feisty and direct cosmic baby chick who hatches from a chocolate Easter egg in a pasticceria, is just what’s needed when taking a deserved break from the seriousness of the rest of the year, and life.”
