Earlier this week, Madewell dropped an Instagram post featuring a woman drinking a glass of wine and wearing a baby tee emblazoned with the words “Book Girl.”

As a book nerd, I was immediately intrigued. It turned out to be a collaboration with the New York Public Library. I hopped on the website 20 minutes after the drop went live and that shirt was already sold out. (Madewell did a limited restock the day after launch and plans a larger restock for preorder.) The tote bag and pin pack also sold out on launch day.

Books are having a moment in fashion. Earlier this year, Coach partnered with Penguin Random House to create miniature, completely readable, book bag charms. They sold out within minutes. Sandy Liang, Coach, and Celine have all staged recent collections in libraries, while Marc Jacobs has repeatedly returned to the NYPL’s Fifth Avenue building for his runway shows. Miu Miu has gone so far as to launch its own book club, whose most recent gathering took place at a library in Milan.

Madewell’s creative director, Steven Cateron, believed that the brand’s customers would also be drawn to book-themed products, and he began searching for the right partner. The NYPL seemed like the ideal collaborator. As a New York-based label, Cateron and his design team have frequently used the library as a resource for researching upcoming collections. They often tap into the picture collection, a vast archive of images they mine for styling cues and vintage references.

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