Reading, reimagined: Why fashion is dressing up literature

Fashion and pop culture go hand in hand, and it is no surprise, then, that these collections come at a time when literary adaptations, including Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, have grossed hundreds of millions worldwide, with at least 60 more literary adaptations in the pipeline this year. Books, clearly, are in vogue.

But whether literary merchandise translates into actual reading remains to be seen.

So far, industry experts are sceptical.

“The Coach book charms are $95, and they are miniature, so I don’t know if people are going to actually read them,” says Kathleen Schmidt, a New York-based media and branding strategist and founder of KMSPR, which specialises in publishing and authors. In a video interview with indianexpress.com, Schmidt compared these book charms to a fashion accessory. “If that were just a regular book in a bookstore, not many people would pay $95 for a book.”

The value lies not in the content, but in the symbolism.

“Within the past couple of years, reading has become fashionable. Carrying a book has become a status symbol amongst celebrities and influencers. The fashion industry is responding to that,” says Schmidt.

American actor Elle Fanning wearing a Coach mini-charm. (Source: Coach/Instagram)

It helps that the campaigns are powered by Gen Z appeal. Coach’s rollout featured youth influencers, including American actors Elle Fanning and Storm Reid, K-pop sensation SOYEON, Japanese singer-songwriter Lilas Ikuta, Women’s National Basketball Association (North America) star Paige Bueckers, and Chinese singer-songwriter Shan Yichun, alongside popular Gen Z-led communities such as Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, and China Youth Daily, the country’s largest youth media organisation.

The DIY culture

Unsurprisingly, these readable micro-book charms remain in demand as fashion identifiers, leading creators on Instagram and YouTube to share tutorials on making their own readable micro-book charms for books not in the Coach catalogue.

Chicago-based creator Yoonie, whose Instagram bio reads ‘making old things new again,’ has produced DIY versions of Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. Others, finding the branded charms too bulky or expensive, are turning to cheaper alternatives. “I just ordered a gold initial charm from Amazon. It was about $7 (roughly Rs 650). At that price, if it tarnishes in a year, I don’t care,” wrote a Reddit user in response to whether the $95 branded micro-book charms are worth purchasing.

Well-curated self-identity

At the heart of both Coach and Dior’s literary experiments is the idea of self-expression.

Coach’s ‘Explore Your Story’ campaign positions its $95 charms (approximately Rs 9,000), while Dior’s Book Cover Collection has totes priced up to Rs 3.25 lakh.

Joon Silverstein, the chief marketing officer who has steered Coach’s creative identity through its Gen Z reinvention, told the Wall Street Journal around the campaign’s February 2026 launch: “Gen Z is returning to books and long-form storytelling as a way to slow down, make sense of themselves, explore who they are, and feel connected to others.”

Each readable Coach micro-book charm centres on a facet of self-expression. For instance, Little Fires Everywhere broadcasts “a ringing challenge to false ideals of perfection”, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings celebrates the African American identity of its author, Maya Angelou.

Dior, meanwhile, approaches literature through a more archival and political lens. Its Spring/Summer 2026 collection, embroidered with first-edition covers of 19th and 20th-century literature, is a spin on the house’s iconic book totes.

Critics have interpreted Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a comment on immigration, which remains a hot button issue. (@susiebubble/Instagram)

Susie Lau, the London-based fashion writer and influencer known as SusieBubble, who has charted the intersection of subculture and luxury for over 20 years, wrote on her Instagram after attending Dior’s “close-friends preview” that the first-edition cover of Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula, the first bag in the collection to be revealed, “has been interpreted as Stoker’s play on late-Victorian fears of immigration, mostly from Eastern Europe at the time, which goes to show how history repeats itself.”

Reading versus literary fashion

Still, the question lingers: will these literary accessories spur reading?

Anish Chandy, founder of the New Delhi-based Labyrinth Literary Agency, is doubtful. “This speaks to one mega-trend underway, which is adding a touch of individualism to one’s personal style. People are moving away from generic Nike and Adidas. Book motifs speak to that,” he says.

On the impact of celebrity endorsement – given icons such as pop icon Rihanna and Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin were roped in for the Dior campaign – Chandy says it does not extend beyond a degree of virtue-signalling. “Some of them genuinely read, and some of them don’t. But if that floats their boat, do it – it helps the author, helps the publisher.”

Will it land in India?

If anything, India may prove uniquely receptive.

Namrata, a Mumbai-based literary consultant who founded Keemiya Creatives, argues that while luxury brands sell cultural symbolism, Indian markets tend to democratise it.

“When brands such as Dior print classics onto luxury totes, they are selling cultural symbolism as much as fashion. In India, imitation markets tend to democratise aspiration, so literary imagery may actually circulate more widely through replicas than through the original luxury objects themselves,” she says.

Mumbai-based fashion stylist Devki Bhatt sees the shift as inevitable. “The Indian reader has never been more visible, or more stylish. BookTok and Bookstagram have transformed reading from a private pleasure into a public identity,” she says.

Prada, Miu Miu, and Valentino have all hosted literary-themed events or campaigns alongside Dior, she says. “Reading has always carried a particular kind of social capital in Indian homes. What’s changed is that it’s now being worn, not just practised.”

Yet India has long expressed literature through fashion, just not through luxury labels.

At literature festivals, Namrata says, one finds tote bags featuring Faiz Ahmed Faiz, dupattas carrying poetry by Saadat Hasan Manto, and earrings engraved with book quotes. “When literature moves into jewellery or handbags, reading shifts from a private act to a public expression of self.”

Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp hangs from a Rs 2,000 handbag at the Jaipur Literature Festival. (Courtesy: Sidhi Kapoor)

Bibliophiles in India also want to broadcast what they are reading. Sidhi Kapoor, an independent journalist who has covered fashion and lifestyle for more than 20 years for publications across India, found a small brand at the Jaipur Literature Festival selling a bag designed to carry a book face-forward, priced at Rs 2,000.

For others, the moment presents an opportunity to foreground Indian narratives.

Akshita M Bhanj Deo, who builds cultural capital around India’s heritage traditions at The Belgadia Palace in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, points to titles such as The Last Queen by Indian-American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – a fictional account of Maharani Jind Kaur, the last queen of Punjab who resisted British colonisation – and Amar Chitra Katha – the Indian comic book series founded in 1967 – as archives that could translate naturally into bags, textiles, and jewellery.

“In a country with hundreds of cultural traditions, these accessories become more than fashion. They have become a way of carrying identity, narrative, and place,” she says.

“The designer who reaches for Rabindranath Tagore or Premchand, first will not just be tapping a trend, they will be defining one,” says Bhatt.

The aesthetic of reading

Ultimately, the rise of literary fashion may say less about reading habits and more about how reading is seen.

The Coach mini book charms do not really make reading cool, says Namrata, “but they do make being seen as a reader fashionable.”

The performative dimension, she argues, need not be a dead end. “Cultural habits often begin as aesthetics before becoming genuine engagement. Visibility, even when symbolic, keeps literature socially relevant.”