In a season flush with designer debuts, no one seems in the mood to spook consumers with any sharp left turns.

And so Simone Bellotti’s coed debut at Jil Sander took place in its spare Milan headquarters by architect Michael Gabellini, where the Hamburg-born founder and several of her design successors also paraded austere coats, cropped shirts, narrow suits and snug sweaters.

Gone were the artsy details and cinematic flair that Luke and Lucie Meier had brought to the house during their seven-year tenure, and back to the fore was the graphic “purism” forged memorably by Raf Simons between 2005 and 2012.

“Apparent simplicity” was the phrase that stuck out during a quick, pre-show chat with Bellotti, who said he sought a balance between classicism and modernity as he stared out the window from the bright, minimalist offices at the dark, brick-walled medieval Sforza Castle.

“I think this is a brand that needs to be studied, and you need to take time. You need to learn about this elegance,” he mused.

Bellotti joined Jil Sander from Bally last March, where he injected some whimsy and began making a name for himself after working for decades behind the scenes at Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta and Gianfranco Ferré.

This was a fine, yet underwhelming start, strongest on high-buttoning tailoring in mainly slim but occasionally boxy variations. The leather blazers and coats for men and women were terrific, meticulously groomed backstage before the models hit the swooping black ramp of a runway in their slim-soled sneakers and loafers.

Bellotti’s big idea was to exalt the body via compact fits or openings onto flesh: hence the diagonal, Fontana-esque openings on shirts and pencil skirts, the slashed waistbands on pants, and the offbeat portholes carved into the front of shift dress, revealing bras in matching suiting fabrics.

Puffs of volume on neat white shirts, and millefeuille fabric embroideries for a men’s shirt collar on the front of three-hole dresses were other ways to bring visual interest to plain and familiar garments.

More intriguing were the geometric protrusions he incorporated into skirts, shirts and even the toe boxes of shoes, drawing a direct line to the Wolfgang Tillmans bent-paper work tacked to his mood board. In a minimalist register, here’s an idea on the cusp of whimsical.