Calvin Klein Collection (Q1404)
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- Calvin Klein 205W39NYC
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
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| English | Calvin Klein Collection |
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Calvin Kleinis in a strange situation for Spring. Actually, it’s not that strange: house sans creative director holds the fort for a season or few with the uncredited, somewhat unloved anonymous mass of the “design team” before unveiling its splashy new hire. It’s becoming the oldest story in the fashion book. Since the April departures of Italo Zucchelli and Francisco Costa, creative directors of men’s and women’s Calvin Klein Collection lines, respectively, eyes are on Klein, awaiting presumably imminent confirmation of its much-rumored new blood.But fashion waits for no man; even without a designer in the post, Klein has to produce something to plug the seasonal gap. Why? Calvin Klein Collection’s sales make up a tiny proportion of the overall turnover of the behemoth company—in 2015, worldwide revenue stood around $8.2 billion, with a focus on jeans and underwear—thus the focus is on the marketing power of the high-fashion range. (Klein poetically dubs it the “halo" brand.) That helps make sense of the necessity to show the range in this interim period; it’s important for Klein’s name to remain in fashion magazines, and to retain a presence on the Fashion Week calendar. Where, presumably, this time next season, someone else will be debuting their menswear for the brand, and we’ll all be dying to write about it.But not today. Team-lead collections are notoriously tricky beasts, frequently wrong-footed by runway showcases where fitful applause and a long pause in place of a designer's bow only serves to emphasize an absence of creative direction. Kudos is due to Klein, then, for bowing out of the pressure of such a show and instead presenting a quiet selection of quiet clothes with a minimum of fuss. Incidentally, they intend to do the same for women in September.The clothes themselves were basic, honestly; continuing in the vein of Zucchelli’s output, they trod the well-traveled road of Americana, reiterating jean and varsity jackets, collegiate sweaters, a mesh baseball shirt, and pleat-front chinos, but in twills shot through with nylon, to give a crunch and a glisten to the textile, or a slithery, sickly-looking satin.It was a serviceable effort, but one that in its timidity betrayed its design-by-committee roots, as well as a debt to the past few collections by Zucchelli, whose strongest moments were intriguing riffs on tech reinterpretations of Klein signature, best-selling denims. A shot of shiny thread in a weave doesn’t really cut it.
It’s difficult to imagine anything in this offering justifying a Calvin Klein Collection price tag. No matter. This was about garnering yet more anticipation for what will come next—and that was palpable.The all-important motto here? Wait and see. There are exciting things about to be afoot at Klein. This collection was the breathing space, before its breath of fresh air.
20 June 2016
The newCalvin Klein CollectionResort lineup was designed by the studio team in the wake ofFrancisco Costa’s departure as creative director. The strongest item among the 21 looks here, a deconstructed slip dress pieced from differently sized black and white polka-dot prints, bore a strong resemblance to Costa’s recent outings for the label. A group of delicately printed floral dresses, two of them boasting fine hand-embroidered beading, was also memorable, partly for the fact that they struck you, in their sweetness, as rather unlike anything that the minimalist Costa ever did at the brand.In between was a real grab bag. There was a crisp cotton tunic worn with sturdy wide-legged pants, knit baby-doll dresses that belted high below the bust, and a cropped and fitted leather motocross jacket teamed with a matching A-line miniskirt. Much of it came in khaki or white. Overall, it wasn’t quite noncommittal, but it didn’t really deliver a strong message for the season either. We’ll have to wait for the incoming creative director, whoever that might be, for a clearer point of view from this label.
8 June 2016
For his first 10 years atCalvin Klein,Francisco Costawas a minimalist’s minimalist—a lover of neutrals, unadorned surfaces, and architectural silhouettes. Something shifted last season; there were flower prints and body jewelry on hisSpring runway, and a distinct sense of deshabille. The collection got a lot of attention from the press—the printed slip dresses in particular—and it must’ve encouraged him to continue in a similar vein for Fall. Today’s show, which was nearly as strong, began with head-to-toe black tailoring—masculine, slightly oversize, sharp. But Costa quickly moved on from there.Print resurfaced as mix-and-match plaids on sturdy wool outerwear and suiting, as well as on more fluid silk shifts. Belted at the waist, sleeveless, and with slits up the sides, the dresses had a high wearability factor. Costa showed a long-sleeve version over a pair of terrific Prince of Wales flares. There were animal prints, too, but not your standard issue: Costa used photo prints of lynx and skunk. Yes, you read that right. The boudoir vibes of Spring carried over on strappy, backless tops. It’s been a big week for the look and it can go trashy fast, but here it was managed with elegance.Most intriguing is where Costa took the body jewelry idea. Swapping out last season’s delicate chains for crystals, he suspended small polished stones in several small cutouts across the bodice of dresses, or a single agate geode in a single larger one. Agates are believed to have protecting, healing, and strengthening properties, three good reasons to wear the black sun-ray-pleated numbers with the geodes inserted like cameos at the solar plexus or above the hip. Also, they were lovely. Elsewhere, some of the leather pieces looked a bit heavy. All in all though, Costa gets points for pushing his and the Calvin Klein aesthetic forward.
18 February 2016
Iconis an overused term across contemporary culture, not just in fashion. It’s in current rotation to describe everything from a hamburger to a pair of underpants. Outside the Fall 2016 Calvin Klein Collection show, thousands of screaming girls chanted the name of Cameron Dallas, an apparent online sensation. “He’s our icon,” one of them said, tears streaming down her face. No one in the fashion fraternity seemed to have heard of him, nor could we work out what he did. It was quite Warholian.That’s the thing about icons; there aren’t that many that everyone can agree on. Italo Zucchelli has more than a few at his disposal at Calvin Klein, though—garment-wise, the logoed waistband and the world’s first wildly successful designer denims rank up high; there are also those tanned, toned, and semi-clad demigods immortalized by Bruce Weber, the kind of guys those teenage girls would have been screaming for 20 years ago. Foiled nylon in gold, platinum, and rose-gold framed the faces and bodies of those mens’ contemporary counterparts, the buffed-out models that make a Calvin Klein show look utterly different from anything else in menswear. I couldn’t help but think they looked a little like gilded Catholic icons of suspiciously good-looking saints. But maybe that wasn’t intentional.Zucchelli built his collection this time around on another icon: the man’s suit. “I wanted to show the universal power of men’s tailoring,” he said. He decided to do that by putting his men’s suits on women for the first time—the boldface model likes of Mariacarla Boscono, Iselin Steiro, Jessica Miller, and Gemma Ward. They’re not exactly Linda, Christy, Claudia, and Naomi, but the former foursome, they do have an instant-recognition factor. “It’s sensual, sexual,” said Zucchelli of those Calvin suits, worn over bare skin by male and female alike. They were impeccably cut—sometimes so perfectly you didn’t realize quite how they built out the muscular models into Superman proportions. Not that they weren’t already naturally endowed: It takes a special type of man to look good in the CK-waistbanded long-underwear-as-outerwear that bottomed suit jackets at the end of the show. We all know what that means.Transformation, however, is a fascinating theme in fashion—and particularly here at Klein. Zucchelli transformed denim into a jacquard, painstakingly woven in a trompe l’oeil of daily wear and tear, making the everyday precious.
Zucchelli first used that jean jacquard for Spring—so they lacked the pleasant frisson of surprise. Ditto the foiling, which was reminiscent of a very specific Helmut Lang collection. No one was foiled. Alchemy was the reference Zucchelli tossed out—apparently, it’s something he’s wildly enthusiastic about, and has a library full of reference books on the subject. It did make sense, both as the ostensible inspiration behind all that metallic nylon, pumping up the visual impact of utilitarian anoraks and MA1 jackets; and perhaps of the front row presence of the enigmatic Dallas. Judicious googling ascertained he’s has been transformed into pop culture platinum via the alchemic power of 21st-century social media (apparently, he’s an especially adept user of the social media platform Vine).Did Zucchelli alchemize gold from Klein with this collection? Not quite. The suits were slick, but serviceable; the metallic linings were arresting, but they felt restricted to editorial. There wasn’t enough of that truly iconic Klein branding, either. On the whole, Zucchelli delivered a show that was a fairly solid silver, clad in a well-cut black suit.
17 January 2016
Print is a rarity atFrancisco Costa’s Calvin Klein, but after the surprise popularity of the florals on his spring runway, he tried a new one forPre-Fall. A blurry animal print appeared on a glossy leather trench worn over an away-from-the-body dress in a slightly smaller version of the pattern. It was in the cat family, but about as far removed from the leopard print so beloved (read: overused) of fashion designers as can be.As a rule, Costa eschewed the everyday here for the exaggerated. His trenches were no standard-issue fare but ultralightweight patent in a shade of nail polish nude or forest green pony hair. He took his earthy palette from the artist Barbara Hepworth whose work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Tate Britian earlier this year. The idea of skewing predictable pieces to the point of artful unpredictability held true elsewhere: Full trousers pooled generously at the floor below trainers, while V-neck sweaters dipped precipitously toward the navel. A woman wearing them would exude a laid-back, unbothered air more successfully than the one who sported a wool jacket tucked into matching pants. The results of that combination looked a tad bulky. The star of the lineup was a long shearling coat in that fuzzed-out animal print. Costa might consider making print a more regular part of his repertoire.
8 December 2015
Calvin Kleindesigned anera-defining collection of slip dresses for Spring 1994. The models in that show—Kate Moss, Bridget Hall, Michele Hicks—went on to rule the runways for a decade, and the dress became a house icon. The only piece of clothing Klein might be more famous for is his instantly recognizable logo briefs. Twenty-odd years later, perhaps thanks to Internet-fueled nostalgia, or maybe greater cultural forces, contemporary designers are looking back at those early ’90s days. Those skimpy silk frocks were all over the New York shows this week, including atFrancisco Costa’s excellent offering for Calvin Klein Collection today.Costa is well-versed in the label’s heritage, but the new Calvin Klein Collection slip dresses are different from the ones of old. Call it grunge deconstruction: They’re slack at the bust, extra straps dangle every which way, and knit versions stitched with brass chains fray and disintegrate towards the hem. Costa imagined the morning after a liaison, when a woman might toss her lover’s tailored jacket and too-big pants over her lingerie, and the tailoring, too, got the deconstruction treatment. Pant hems unraveled, jacket hems were partially sliced away, and sleeves extended almost to the fingertips or were sliced up the seam halfway to the elbows. It was new to see Costa embrace the disarray; in the past he’s erred on the side of orderly.The collection’s biggest surprise was the photo prints of flowers that appeared on dresses, pants, and a trench alike. Costa doesn’t usually show that much pattern on his runway. It’s rarer still for it to have such sweet connotations. Here’s hoping he indulges his romantic impulses again sometime soon.
17 September 2015
Italo Zucchelli thought of his latest exercise in Calvin Klein-hood as one of his West Coast collections. He called it Graphic Heatwave, his main motif was inspired by defining L.A. artist Ed Ruscha's palm trees, and he also abstracted a "surf's-up" wave on T-shirts. But Zucchelli gave short shrift to any notion of a sun-kissed salute to classic American sportswear. Bright sunlight, after all, creates harsh shadows. So Frédéric Sanchez's soundtrack featured the industrial grind of '80s bands Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and Nitzer Ebb, and the models had an eerie clonelike quality, and they were all wearing sandals and socks, and somehow that all added up to trouble in paradise.Though Zucchelli is a rigorous formalist, with substantial tailoring the foundation of all his collections, he is also provokingly experimental when it comes to menswear. Here, he was intrigued by the idea of "roundness," so many of the models had a circle of fabric attached at the waist, like an odd belt. It didn't make a hell of a lot of sense, but Zucchelli, famously minimalist in his approach to design, had been musing over ways to inject a little maximalism into his work. Hence that superfluous circle. He met more success with the pieces whose Velcro-ed pockets could be positioned at will. Nowthatseemed more useful, and a bit maximal too.Something else Zucchelli is mesmerized by is the possibilities of fabric. Technology is his friend. With this collection, he made a jacquard of stone-washed denim, such an accurate looky-likey that you'd be completely fooled into thinking you were looking at a jacket and jeans from the 1970s wardrobe of Jan-Michael Vincent or Willie Aames. Zucchelli paired them with a white poplin tee, just about the most classically minimal menswear combination you could imagine. Except it wasn't, because the denim was an illusion. That too was provoking.Why?, one wonders.Because I can, the other answers.
21 June 2015
Francisco Costa collaborated on a print with the artist Alice Lancaster for Resort. He discovered her on Instagram, where she goes by the handle @ragingleisure. Coincidence or not, raging leisure is a fitting description for his new collection, which combined the languid shapes of the 1920s—think long fitted knit tanks over midi-length skirts—with a sportif aesthetic that came across mostly via bold horizontal stripes. Padding out in white-soled sneakers, the models conveyed athletic good health, even if here and there the vibe fell a bit short of effortless: Some of the plastic belt buckles that hit at mid-thigh looked clunky.Costa might've skipped the black leather biker jackets that he morphed into dresses, too; that kind of thing has been done elsewhere. That said, the jacket and skirt pieced together from strips of eelskin looked cool—ultra-luxe, obviously, but with a vintage sheen. In the end, the big story here was the midi silhouette. Extrapolating on the idea of the tank-over-skirt set, Costa cut salopette dresses in silk and layered them over boxy knit tees with a translucent, techno sheen. As elegant as a dress worn with trainers could be. Lancaster's contribution was an abstract motif of breasts. Not safe for Instagram, maybe, but very much in the arty vein that Costa likes.
3 June 2015
The Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" set the stage for a Calvin Klein collection that looked back at the silhouettes of the late '60s. It was all minis or maxis on the runway today, with a few swingy culottes and a pair of jumpsuits in the mix for the dress averse. Short or long, the looks were paired with stretchy over-the-knee boots or Mary Janes with low, stacked heels. The footwear was era-appropriate, although Nico and the gang weren't lucky enough to have gravity-defying stretch technology. Their boots didn't cling with quite the same intensity.The late '60s have gotten a lot of play on the runways lately. Saint Laurent's Hedi Slimane receives a lot of the credit, but he doesn't own the era. Marc Jacobs had his own mod moment not too long ago. Earlier in his tenure at Calvin, Francisco Costa was less inclined to look backward, but these days it seems just about everybody is doing it. Retromania is one of the defining memes of our time, and not just in fashion. Could it be because of the warp speed at which designers are required to put together new collections?Yes or no, it's how you make the past your own that counts. And in that regard, Costa did a good job here, splicing together narrow strips of needle-punched haircalf for short coats and patchworking together various shades of brown, black, and garnet leather for a slim, long one. These were expensive materials treated in costly ways, but the collection didn't feel precious. Ribbed-knit Lurex-shot dresses had frayed hems, and short leather shifts with geometric arrays of shiny silver studs were cut like T-shirts. They'll be a leggy kick to wear. The pieces that felt the most Calvin, though, were the finale dresses: Narrow tunic-like shapes made from tiny patches of calf hair linked together with chain, they struck a modern, minimalist chord.For Tim Blanks' take on Calvin Klein Collection, watch this video.
19 February 2015
Gray is the color of Calvin Klein. Think about it, because Italo Zucchelli most definitely has. Granite, anthracite, Gotham, basalt, charcoal, heather—these were the gradations that colored his Fall collection. But don't, whatever you do, ask him if his grays stretched to 50 shades.And yet it was actually movies that Zucchelli had in mind: old-school black-and-whiters, where the tones of grays were what defined the screen image. He built his new collection on those subtleties, and the result was the kind of monochrome glamour that made film noir such a durable celluloid phenomenon. It's not exactly unfamiliar territory to Zucchelli. His collections have often infused a masculine '40s silhouette with a futuristic bent. Today, for instance, there were great big drop-shoulder tweed topcoats, the clincher being that they were overprinted with a cheetah pattern. There was also something vaguely retro (and not entirely successful) about a passage of cropped flight jackets and high-waist trousers that, with the uniform look of the models, suggested an air squadron of sinister androids.Zucchelli's tenure at Calvin Klein now looks like an act of long-term subversion. In this collection, for instance, he rejigged sporty wardrobe staples in black vinyl (again, much less successful when offered in gray). In a film noir context, it made perfect sense: The vinyl had the sheen of tarmac in the rain, which perpetually falls in the world of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. The speckled effect of Zucchelli's embossed cheetah and leopard textures even began to seem like raindrops on windshields. That may sound like a stretch of the imagination, but how lucky Calvin Klein is to have a designer who can goose the everyday in such an evocative manner.
18 January 2015
On the coffee table at the Calvin Klein Collection showroom this season was a book celebratingSemina:a little-known mail-art magazine founded and published by Wallace Berman, a California counterculture artist known as the father of assemblage art, between the years 1955 and 1964. It set the stage for Francisco Costa's vibe-y Pre-Fall lineup of patchwork leather hip-slung flares, cropped and shrunken motorcycle jackets, and retro trenches. It's rare for Costa to tap so directly into another time period—he's usually much more circumspect in his influences—but it was refreshing to see the designer's wild side. There was something just this side of feral about a coat whipstitched together from leather, suede, and shearling sheared to different lengths. Squint and you saw shades ofMad Max: Fury Road.We won't be surprised if 2015’sRoad Warriorremake sparks a trend for desert tones and raw, untreated skins on the Fall runways come February. If it does, it's safe to say that Costa got there first with this outing.Of course, it wasn't entirely undomesticated. Costa recently launched a capsule eveningwear collection inspired by the red-carpet numbers he whips up for celebrities. There was plenty of polish to be found on the racks, too. Silk slipdresses were quintessential Calvin, as in tailor-made for the wilds of Manhattan.
15 December 2014
"New York, sleek, Tina Chow." Those were Francisco Costa's bullet points after his Calvin Klein Collection show this afternoon. Like last season, Costa's message today was about knitwear. But where back in February he was thinking warm and cozy, sending the models out in flat, lug-sole boots, here the look was bare and elongated. In their Lucite platform sandals, with metal belts cinched high on the waist Empire-style over tunic-length tanks and longer skirts, or the occasional pair of swingy culottes, the models were skyscraper tall, as narrow as a sliver.There are plenty of us who would like to look like that, but Costa's knits have other advantages. They'll feel good against the skin: formfitting but not constricting. Sweater dressing was one of the key messages of New York fashion week, and knits make particular sense at this label. Back in the day, tees, tanks, and racerbacks formed the basis of the Calvin Klein vocabulary. On the other hand, the subtle geometric embroideries and graphic color-blocking (navy and cream, navy and black) were pure Costa. The art-loving designer said the lacquer red of a laser-cut leather coat came from Andy Warhol's Mao Zedong portraits. There was a cool elegance to this collection, though the narrow focus on a single silhouette and restrained palette did become a bit repetitive. Overall, the clothes would've benefited from a little more of that red heat.
11 September 2014
There is something so physically extravagant about the boys that Italo Zucchelli has hybridized for Calvin Klein Collection that they might be a tribe of giants. It's an irony that is never lost on him as he designs uniforms for his perfect specimens—they are, after all, just kids. Sometimes it's that youthful vulnerability he emphasizes; other times, it's physical strength. Today offered a combination. Zucchelli's collection was partially a hymn to skin, celebrated in a buff monochrome palette, defined by layers of tank tops and shorts. His use of underwear as outerwear offered an irresistible metaphor. The designer wanted transparency, literally and figuratively: baring the body, baring the soul. "Transparency is very important to move ahead with straightforwardness and simplicity," he said. Did he design this collection with Edward Snowden looking over his shoulder?Hyper-athleticism is a Zucchelli staple, but here he took it to a sophisticated new level, combining, say, a double-breasted jacket with layers of poplin and mesh boxers, and cutting a tank top from richly glossy eelskin. The bonded wools of his evening looks suggested that even they could be high-performance if called upon. Zucchelli usually favors head-to-toe monochrome hues, which better underscore his models' fabulous forms. When he uses color, it has often been an eye-popping slap in the face to neutrality, like today, from the first hints of brights in the collars of nylon outerwear, to peekaboo PVC under a neutral jersey tank, to a sequence of PVC pullovers and blousons in flaring red, yellow, and orange. Sure, they elaborated on the see-through theme, but they were also like sci-fi carapaces, another glimpse of the curious future world that Zucchelli evokes so often in his shows. It makes you wonder what's going on in his head at the same time as you're reminded of how subtly, impressively consistent he is as a designer.
21 June 2014
Resort marks a timely reversal for Calvin Klein Collection. After two seasons of cozy, even crafty shows, designer Francisco Costa has embraced a more linear, streamlined silhouette. Backstage afterward, he claimed Matisse's collages as an inspiration. "Fall was very organic; it was time to offer women something else," he said. That something else boiled down to a vaguely late sixties, early seventies silhouette—sleeveless A-line dresses, cropped zip-front jackets, and flares chopped off above the ankle, their retro associations heightened by the see-through plastic Chelsea boots with which they were paired. Brushed-metal bibs built into some of the shifts added to the space-age vibes. Where last season's materials were furry or fuzzy, Costa's technical fabrics for Resort were flat, exuding a modern cool. The palette was equally precise in shades of black, white, blue, and sand. Curving plastic zips inset at the hips were among the collection's few embellishments, save for the flat Lucite flowers embroidered with grid-like rigor on the hem of two dresses at the end.These developments situated Costa in Resort's developing story line—a good place to be. Clothes are getting leaner. Round, enveloping shapes are fading away and sharp angles are taking their place. The Calvin Klein legacy is a sensual one. In the end, fashion that obscures the form probably doesn't make as much sense for the brand as form-fitting pieces like these. Costa also pointed out that short, above-the-knee lengths sell well for the company. "We imagine the average height of an American woman is 5'10". Well, it isn't, it's 5'4". And short lengths work for her." Short or tall, the collection's best look was a tunic-length top layered with a tank and teamed with cropped flares.
4 June 2014
With New York fashion week all but sewn up, Fall trends are sharpening into view. After Francisco Costa's Calvin Klein Collection show this afternoon, it's fair to say that sweater dressing has taken the lead. Designers, Costa included, have embraced comfort in a big way, and that's good news. When a storm along the magnitude of the one we're currently living through comes rolling in next winter, we'll have Costa's lug-soled lace-ups (a definite first here) to negotiate the slush puddles with. And to keep us warm and cozy: not only furry mohair coats, but also furry mohair dresses, and all manner of knit separates.Costa estimated that 85 percent of the collection was knits. Not your standard-issue cashmere pullovers, of course. He approached the idea of sweater dressing with the same experimental mind-set that he used to tackle his avant-garde tailoring. There were turtlenecks hand-stitched with front panels that looked like they came straight off a loom, as crafty as anything you've ever seen on a Calvin Klein runway. And Costa also did his own take on Fair Isle; the sleeveless turtleneck tunic and matching tube skirt were the best pieces in the collection. Outerwear got a fair bit of the designer's attention, as well, and the results showed. The gradient color on one coat—peachy pink at the shoulders to mandarin red at the flared hem—was gorgeous. Another standout was speckled black with a wide band of navy nestled in the middle. Instead of buttons, Costa used oversize safety pins threaded with big plastic beads.Asked about the new direction, Costa explained that he was looking at Loretta Lux's photographs of children for some of the proportions. And then, on the other hand, he said, "It felt like the clothes needed to be cooler, urban; there was this idea of a gypsy." The overwhelming impression, though, was of a new softness, and a heightened understanding of what might feel good to a woman to wear. Both were positive developments.
12 February 2014
"Obsession is the best name ever for a perfume," Italo Zucchelli declared today as he revealed the secret in his new collection for Calvin Klein. He'd been thinking about the way artist Ed Ruscha uses words in his work, and he felt it was a good moment to do something similar. Presto! Sweatshirts appliquéd with Obsession, Escape, and Eternity, words Zucchelli loves, which just happen to be the monikers of Calvin's best-selling perfumes.It could have come across as cheesy cross-promotion, but in the context of the show Zucchelli presented, the words took on some interesting personal shadings. Obsession, for instance: The collection was testament to Zucchelli's obsessive pursuit of a masculine ideal. Square of jaw and shoulder, his models were streamlined in head-to-toe black or charcoal or camel, the outfits layered—two bombers, three shirts—to lend them a monumental quality. Escape? Well, Zucchelli's men seemed slightly unreal, an elite squadron engineered for perfection somewhere in the future. Maybe that was because of the military feel in some of the massive outerwear, but it was also down to the deliberate modernism of the fabrics and treatments that Zucchelli is drawn to.And Eternity? The designer modestly described his new collection as urban workwear, but it was also a consummate expression of the eternal veritiesluxe, calme et volupté.
11 January 2014
Cozy. That was the impression you got from Francisco Costa's Calvin Klein Collection show this morning. The first model's double-breasted coat, floor-skimmer of a knit dress, and pony-hair slippers—all in shades of icy gray—made the black-clad, stiletto-wearing audience seriously rethink their looks. And the relaxed vibe didn't stop there. Slipdresses scraped the tops of Birkenstock-style shoes, pale knits were layered and lightly cinched above the waist with ribbon-thin strands of yarn, and a Kashmir-shearling coat in palest lilac looked positively downy.Safe to say, it felt like a departure for the designer, who sometimes tends to favor dense materials with a lot of innate structure. Recall, if you will, last Fall's felted wools, or Spring's deeply cuffed painter pants. Afterward, Costa, who was headed straight to the airport to catch a flight to Art Basel Miami Beach, said he was looking at the work of the artist Mike Kelley. "It's very homey, very innocent. I think it's nice."The mood continued into evening, where the propositions included a pair of crepe wool georgette sleeveless dresses with frayed, raw edges (the bordeaux was gorgeous) and a few degradé sequined numbers built on chiffon bases. Come to think of it, any one of them would be just the thing for Art Basel, where the dress code usually reads: relaxed.
4 December 2013
Francisco Costa is celebrating his tenth anniversary at the helm of Calvin Klein this season. It's a milestone, and the brand is doing it up: new Tribeca venue, A-list star power in the form of Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara (the face of the label's just-launched perfume, Downtown) in the front row, and a glitzy party planned for later this evening. Costa, for his own part, didn't let the moment slip by. True to the house's roots, minimalism has long been the designer's signature here, but you couldn't call what he did today pared back. If he didn't exactly play against type, he certainly tried a few things that felt new. "Elevated deconstruction," he called his Spring experiment afterward. It was a gutsy show for Costa.The collection started off much as they usually do at Calvin Klein—with white, but the exposed seam allowance on the opening look's strapless wrap top and skirt flashed pink. Color was the first difference; in addition to that pink, there was the red, mint, and brilliant emerald green of handwoven cotton tweed. A black nylon material he used for a tank top and a full, short skirt was loomed with bright threads. Yarnlike threads also appeared as a deep fringe on a woven black leather jacket. Costa has traditionally been too controlled a designer to embrace something like fringe. Here, he made it a big part of the story, and the three swishy finale dresses especially were an argument for a more freewheeling Francisco.Not all of Costa's ideas about deconstruction were as successful. Some of the materials he used were too stiff (we're thinking in particular of those wide-cuff painter's pants), and it's also fair to wonder how many women out there want to wear their seam allowances on the outside of their clothes. But we really liked the look of a pair of dresses patchworked from graphic leather and silk basket weaves. All in all, Costa more than earned all of the celebrating he'll be doing tonight.
11 September 2013
It's been a decade since Italo Zucchelli was appointed creative director of Calvin Klein's men's collection. Throughout his tenure, he's always maintained an intense respect for Calvin's legacy, but it must surely be time to acknowledge Zucchelli for the transformative effect he's had on the brand. It's his now, so consistent and convincing has he been in imprinting his signatures: the fabric research, the streamlined futurism, the utilitarian precision, always set, come showtime, to a mesmerizing soundscape.Zucchelli's presentation today was no exception. Critics might carp that his consistency is more simple repetition and point to the show-opener—a zipped blouson cut from a tech mesh, like high-performance fencing gear, paired with narrow bonded-wool pants—as proof of a kind. But that chilly view doesn't take into account how much Zucchelli's collections for Calvin reflect elements of his own history—growing up in the eighties, thriving onThe Face's notions of fashion avant-gardism, honing his sensibility in Jil Sander's studio, and so on. He's a perfect hybrid.Today's collection may have been the most personal yet. Inspired by the views of sea and sky on Fire Island, where he has a weekend home, Zucchelli used every shade of blue to salute summer, his favorite time of year. Thinking about light led him to look at James Turrell, currently on show at the Guggenheim in New York. The eeriness of Turrell's art paired neatly with Zucchelli's work to give the new collection's seascapes a sci-fi flair. But it was ultimately touch, rather than tech, that characterized Zucchelli's anniversary outing. A trio of pieces in crocodile (one, a baby blue biker vest!) were as luxe as he's ever been, and a handful of pieces cut from ticking stripe were as straightforward.
22 June 2013
Ellsworth Kelly had the best seat in the house at today's Calvin Klein Collection show. Francisco Costa recently partnered with the 90-year-old artist; their striped shift dress, based on Kelly's 1952 canvasRed Yellow Blue White,was hanging in the windows of the Madison Avenue flagship earlier this Spring, and will soon be donated to the Costume Institute.Today's Resort show was a continuation of that collaboration—after a fashion. Costa said the bold palette—unusual for the designer, who usually prefers neutrals—was inspired not by Kelly's paintings but by the colors he saw in his studio. An ultramarine ultrasuede apron dress was the vibrant standout, but there was also a fern-green ultrasuede coat and zip-front dress, and a rich chestnut-brown nubuck work jacket and pencil skirt.Costa claimed Irving Penn'sSmall Tradesbook as another point of reference. In the end, though, the strongest message was the collection's seventies mood. Credit goes to all that ultrasuede. "There was a sense of lightness [to the seventies], a great spirit," he said, "but obviously we don't do it literally." True. Even in that body-beautiful era, we doubt women had the abs of steel required for Resort's spate of midriff-exposing tops. Amid all the cropped sweaters and sweatshirts we've been seeing, Costa's harness top looked fresh. The most persuasive piece was more discreet: a black washed-silk charmeuse tank dress with just a flash of bare skin exposed in the back.
4 June 2013
Ivan's Childhood, a Russian film about an orphan in World War II, was the unlikely starting point for Francisco Costa's powerful, provocative new collection. Something about an image of the young boy in a field of birch trees got him thinking about coats. "Calvin started with coats," Costa said backstage. "It's so relevant to bring them back."Relevant, it turns out, not just to the heritage of the brand but also to this New York season. It's been a big week for coats. Well, duh, it's Fall we're talking about. But we mean big as in large, and with their exaggerated, mannish shoulders and dense fabrics (alpaca, technical twill), Costa's certainly qualified. Some of those fabrics proved a bit recalcitrant, unwilling to bend to the will of the military roller belts that cinched their waists. As if sensing the potential for heaviness, Costa punched them with holes, commissioning mills to weave fabrics on looms with dropped needles. The holes were rendered in very precise grids, and since process is always paramount with this designer, those grids eventually led him to plaids. Straightforward ones, like a glen plaid V-neck top and matching pleated skirt, as well as ingenious ones, as in the case of a nappa leather dress embroidered with brass tubes in a tic-tac-toe design.This collection didn't quite capture the eroticism of Costa's work for Spring—it seemed to be more about strength than sex—but it was surprisingly sensual considering the film that inspired it. Credit for that goes to the emphasis he put on the waist, and the suggestiveness of materials like black vinyl and black glove leather. And then there were the models: Carolyn Murphy, who reportedly appeared in her first Calvin show in 1993, walked, and so did Elise Crombez. They both have three decades under their own belts. That's a trend we wouldn't mind seeing continue.
13 February 2013
One thing this season has already clarified is how fundamental the fine art of tailoring is to menswear. It's a core value, and core values have gained a lot of weight in the past few years. Italo Zucchelli has proved himself a master tailor, but, as the helmsman of Calvin Klein men's collection, he is also attuned to the label's iconic status in the world of body-con masculinity. Which is why his new collection revolved around the idea of formal sportswear, the kind ofclassico-con-twist, just-dressed-up-enough tailoring he imagined modern guys relating to.Except that Zucchelli is also a futurist at heart, so he took herringbone and houndstooth, staples of the trad gent's wardrobe, and zapped them to eternity and beyond. His alchemy was most obvious in the dissected herringbone he embossed on a peacoat. The chevrons quivered like scales on snakeskin. The same flying Vs were blown up to 3-D effect on knitwear. And they covered a blouson whose sleeves were grooved with a similarly treated houndstooth. Zucchelli also layered the patterns over each other. The result was as solid-looking as samurai armor, and yet, through the wonders of modern fabric technology, irresistibly light.Zucchelli was seduced by those wonders a dog's age ago. That means he can take something as familiar as a sweatshirt, a utility jacket, or a pair of combats, and switch it into a sci-fi fashion statement, bonding the fabric, overlaying it with mesh, injecting alien textures. That also meant his models occasionally looked like they were starship troopers on cosmic shore leave, which is practically a Zucchelli signature at this point in his career. It's appropriately unique, because there is no one else who makes dystopia look so good. He suits the future.
12 January 2013
Monasticism and sensuality. That's an unlikely combination, but it's one that's always turned Francisco Costa on, and he delivered on both fronts with a pre-fall collection that was at once covered-up (we can confidently say we've never seen sheared mink dickies until now) and provocative. The provocation came not only courtesy of the deep-V plunge of a leather tunic and thigh-high slits on narrow, below-the-knee skirts, but also via unusual fabric choices, like the rubberized vinyl of a trenchcoat in a color that Crayola once would've called flesh.Overall, the silhouette was quite elongated. Costa experimented with narrow shoulders, and full, almost rounded sleeves on jackets with extra-wide lapels. "The future is about new construction," he said after the presentation. "You have to show something new. We really worked on that." Exposed seam allowances on the exterior of the garments could've created a raw, unfinished feeling, but on the contrary, these clothes felt quite polished. Credit for that goes to the luxe, organic materials he juxtaposed that vinyl with—materials like alpaca, double-faced cashmere, and calf. Editors walked out into the December chill wishing for Costa's wide-lapel, double-breasted coat in vicuna.
5 December 2012
Francisco Costa closed New York fashion week with a collection that delivered a strong sexual charge. Backstage he said, "It's erotic again, a continuation of last Fall and Spring," and cited as references the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, the artist Carsten Nicolai, and the power and precision of cars. The Calvin Klein girl may be a pinup next season, but she's an intellectual too.Costa opened with a black satin conical bustier dress, the model'sbelle poitrineoutlined in silver. All signs pointed to the bust as this collection's erogenous zone. But Costa didn't ignore the waist or the legs, either. Peplums played a starring role, and narrow belts accented most of the looks. A pair of putty-colored silk gazar numbers might go down as the shortest dresses this designer has ever put on a runway.As we said, though, this show had brains as well as beauty. What made it trademark Costa was the interesting fabric play. Adding a white lining to the black mesh he used for a skirtsuit produced a vibrating moiré effect, as did the parabolas of what looked like leather embroidery on a pair of dresses. These weren't just experiments for experimentation's sake. They were great looking. Another provocative idea, this one inspired by cars: draping a strapless cocktail dress from a gold metal frame. Ladies, rev your engines.
12 September 2012
Outside looking in is a useful point of view for an artist. It clears the vision. And it's certainly helped Italo Zucchelli wrap his head around the iconography of Calvin Klein. He's been able to isolate and elevate the pieces he sees as iconic in American sportswear. Jeans, bomber jackets, suits, and a soupçon of surf were the pillars of the collection Zucchelli showed today. Clothes for heroes is the way he saw it, and he had the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire, the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist, and the Giants' Victor Cruz in his front row, just in case anyone missed his point.Zucchelli has perfected a masterful balancing act between the need to make clothes that fit the Calvin mandate those guys represent and his own desire to explore all the technological possibilities his job offers him. It's best expressed in the fabrics he uses. Why cut a suit from some ordinary material when there's a shimmering micro-pleated fabric on offer? A sporty blouson takes on a whole new life when it's cut from a glossily coated nylon. And athletic mesh adds an exotic finish to a tuxedo lapel.But these are all areas that Zucchelli has investigated in the past. What made this collection a standout was his new interest in graphics. He's always been the most stone-and-steel urban of designers, but here he lit out for the coast and, as he put it, "a Californian summer." Sun, sea, surf, a lush tropical vibe—none of these elements has ever been part of Zucchelli's design vocabulary before, but he insisted he'd incorporated them into his newly sunny mood. And never was his outsider status more obvious, because sunniness for him was summed up by an abstract print (not exactly a floral, more a "burst," he said). Printed on cotton twill, embossed on cotton sateen, and woven into cotton silk, it was delivered in such dark tones—and, in today's show, to a great whack of metal music that overwhelmed the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"—that it cast a noir mood over Zucchelli's clothes for heroes. Very L.A., of course—shadows are never darker than when the sun shines brightest. But at the same time, his ability to spark that train of thought illuminates exactly why Zucchelli is such an intriguing, unpredictable designer. On some deep, dark level, he may even be a stranger to himself.
23 June 2012
"Architectural" has always been a word that's thrown around where Francisco Costa is concerned. Maybe it was inevitable that he'd one day come around to architecture as his theme. For Resort, the designer explained after his show, he'd been thinking of California modernism. (LACMA recently mounted a show tracing its development from Bauhaus to the Eameses.) The potential pitfall of such an approach is that home design—particularly of the modernist stripe—doesn't exactly exude sex appeal. But Costa teased the sensuality out of blocky shapes, longer lengths, and cool expanses of color by mixing hard and soft, solid and sheer. "A lot of the textures came from the Eames' house," Costa said. "I found it fascinating, because the exterior is this complete box, but you walk in and it's so personal, it's so lovely. That's what American modernism is about."What looked forbidding at first softened as it moved. Slit skirts kept legs flashing as models tottered down the runway on thick flatform wedges in lizard, calf, and nubuck. Sleeveless tunic vests worn over matching cropped flares nodded at utilitarianism—especially when finished off with low-slung belts whose giant buckles resembled seatbelts—but there was fluttery softness in silk dresses, especially the caped version in which Marie Piovesan billowed along. (They had a bit of a seventies lightness, echoed too in the collection's prints, based on a Calvin dress from the decade worn by Lisa Taylor in a famous Helmut Newton shot.) The finale looks combined the two poles: long, sheer T-shirt dresses worn over crepe dresses or silk cady bottoms and bandeaux. Lovely, though quite revealing. Call it window dressing.
6 June 2012
New York fashion is in a decorous frame of mind. Dresses outnumbered pants on the runways this week, and skirts have descended to mid-calf. Who knows from whence this new propriety came, but you certainly wouldn't have guessed the house of Calvin Klein would be leading the way, not with the founder's legacy of provocation. But Francisco Costa is a different designer. He started feeling for longer lengths a while ago, and he brought them back today in a strong collection that also keyed into the season's new, bigger volumes.Picking up where his pre-fall lineup left off, Costa put the focus on the waist, cinching coats and dresses made from dense wools or bonded polished leather with metal-banded belts. On other pieces, inverted darts above the midriff and pleats below it created the nipped silhouette. Peplum jackets followed the same curved lines, blossoming out over full pants cropped a couple of inches above the ankles. The fabrics had real heft but didn't feel weighed down, thanks to the clothes' built-in volumes. A few of the dresses had sheer panels on the torso (which should make them appealing to front-row guest Rooney Mara, who's made a red-carpet style statement with cutout frocks). But even without the game of peekaboo, these otherwise modest silhouettes looked sexy. That was Costa's real accomplishment today.
15 February 2012
Italo Zucchelli clearly loves his life in New York. His new collection for Calvin Klein was a song to the city. He managed to find a way to duplicate the texture of concrete in stippled leathers. The lights of high-rises reflected in puddles of rain inspired the Technicolor flecks on a nylon parka. There was a fireman's poncho in nylon canvas, and the bombers and hooded sweatshirts you see on every street corner. If the collection had a directness and immediacy about it, that was surely because of Zucchelli's new living-for-today conviction. Not yesterday, and certainly not tomorrow, which is where he has so often been placed as the futurist of American men's fashion. The here and now obviously suits him, because the clothes he came up with were one of his clearest distillations yet of the Calvin Klein ethos. The name stands for a modern classicism, and that was exactly what Zucchelli focused on with this collection: not only the urban staples like duffels and puffas, but also broad-chested suits in gray flannel or tweed, and voluminous overcoats that had a timeless masculine heft. The palette was classic camel and black. Plus, every look was underpinned by a button-down shirt in white cotton.Zucchelli's own contribution to the Calvin lexicon has been his aptitude with fabric, which usually comes out in extraordinary techno materials. But here, the focus on the classic drew him to cashmeres, alpacas, mohairs, leathers, and, most indulgently, alligator: At the beginning of the show, a felted sweatshirt had sleeves of navy alligator. By the end, there were slim alligator trousers and a matching blazer. Zucchelli brought luxury down to earth with the thick-soled loafers that are showing up everywhere as the shoe of the season.
14 January 2012
Francisco Costa has swapped Spring's see-through slipdresses and delicate lingerie for sturdier stuff. Wool felt, to be precise. His pre-fall collection seemed to be an exercise in making the somewhat rigid and certainly thick material sensuous. It sounds like an impossible challenge, but Costa made a success of it, and it comes down to a single element: the hourglass silhouette.Designers up and down Manhattan have been talking about the waist this week, and Costa made it the focal point of his show. Coats, dresses, and the jackets of skirtsuits (there wasn't a pair of pants to be seen) came cinched with belts, or their backs were decorated with long, curving parallel seams. Pleats on full, A-line skirts echoed those seams and kept the hourglass idea going. There's something pleasingly perverse about a bustier dress in second-skin charcoal-colored wool felt, or a leather and wool bustier over a cashmere crewneck—they're just so unexpected. Felted wool coats were less of a surprise, but they displayed the same exacting attention to cut and fit. The collection's colors—a brown that was almost black, khaki, putty, and apricot—further served to accentuate Costa's trademark precision.
8 December 2011
After a week of in-your-face colors and dizzying prints, Francisco Costa served up a palette cleanser for Spring. Of course, the Calvin Klein womenswear creative director has never really gone in for over-the-top anything, so the collection's subtle shades of nude, pale yellow, silver, and black weren't exactly a surprise. What was new was the softness and the femininity. Occasionally in the past, Costa's minimalism has erred on the conceptual side. He's been slowly moving away from the sculptural constructions that used to define his work, but he said good-bye to them for good this season.In their place were slipdresses that by their very definition had a real sense of the body. Curving seams on the rear end highlighted its round form; pleats tapering to a point near the tailbone served the same purpose. Many of the silk frocks had sheer details at the bodice or were made of such gossamer-light stuff that the models' underpinnings were visible. Lingerie being such a big part of the CK empire, it felt—deliberately or not—like a smart synergy between brands: Put more celebrities in dresses with bras peeking through—Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Ashley Greene, and Chloë Moretz were all sitting front-row—and sell more Calvin Klein Underwear.The delicate look of the slips extended to the tailoring: Jackets had portrait necklines, and pants were cut so wide and cropped so high that from certain angles they looked like full skirts. For a long time now, Costa has practiced one half of the Calvin Klein brand DNA, minimalism; this season he nailed the sensuous part of the house code, too.
14 September 2011
The collections currently being shown in Milan will be in-store during next year's Olympic Games. Given the event's all-consuming global nature, we can anticipate some acknowledgement from designers. Italo Zucchelli's collection was built around athleticwear, which makes him the fashion industry's earliest adopter.At least that's what it looked like at first with the precise tanks and track pants harking back to the special issue ofInterviewmagazine that Bruce Weber shot to mark the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Weber, of course, was the photographer who used his Calvin Klein advertising campaigns to help redefine the image of American men, and that's always been the part of the Calvin legacy that this designer was hot-wired into, with his models styled as hypermasculine androids. His Spring 2012 show was no exception, but his overliteral celebration of young sports gods rammed home how much of himself Zucchelli has actually been able to bring to the brand. He is obsessive about fabric technology, which means even the most familiar styles are transfigured by unfamiliar substance. When he talked about "multidimensionality," he meant a blouson cut from minutely petaled suede, or a classic blazer created from laser-cut rubber tiles mounted on mesh. It pulsed slightly as the model moved. This mix of the straight-up and the sci-fi defines Zucchelli. (One of his favorite movies is, unsurprisingly,Blade Runner.)He is like a mad scientist at Calvin Klein, making a new man in his lab. Not every experiment will work: the Kid 'N Play shorts in today's show were on a par with the cropped sweat tops from last Spring. But front-row fan Joe Jonas was loving all the tailoring. He was even spotting potential stage outfits. And it's no mean achievement if Zucchelli has been able to bring a sense of theater to Calvin's trademark minimalism.
18 June 2011
Other designers may be embracing color, clashing prints, and embellishments, but minimalism isn't a passing fancy for Calvin Klein Collection's Francisco Costa. As is his habit, he stuck steadfastly to a monochrome palette at this morning's Resort presentation, showing dresses and skirtsuits in black, white, navy, or icy gray. The silhouette was body-conscious but not clingy; waists were clasped with micro-thin belts, and hems grazed the upper shins. Models wore white-soled sandal flatforms.In the early going, the only attempt at seduction was a keyhole cutout on the bodice of an ivory frock. But if the collection started out spare, Costa warmed up toward the end, suspending sleek evening looks from thin strips of silver hardware. The sexy yet understated halter dresses will be a no-brainer for his celebrity followers.
7 June 2011
Francisco Costa has been caught by the fuzz. Whereas last season was all about line, and a comparatively languid one at that, the story at Calvin Klein Collection for Fall was texture. To ensure that the focus was on the fabrics, the Brazilian-born creative director zeroed in on a few uncomplicated, graphic silhouettes: above-the-knee shift dresses, baseball jackets, short A-line skirts, and coats, some of them pumped up with away-from-the-body volumes. Out first was a slate gray alpaca and cashmere jacquard topper with a deep, rich pile. A hooded shearling with a papery finish likewise looked like it could stand up to the kind of winter we've had. In fact, it was so stiff that if you took it off, it might just walk away on its own. Equally substantial, but with a more supple appeal, was a pantsuit in shiny black calf hair.On the other side of the spectrum, sleeveless dresses came whipped up from a weightless silk jacquard laser-cut into tiny frills. From a distance the surfaces seemed to be embroidered with feathers, an embellishment you're as likely to see on the Calvin runway as, oh, gold bullion. Other New York designers this week have been moving away from the American sportswear that has defined the last couple of seasons, but minimalism remains Costa's thing. The most compelling examples here: a pair of white dresses inset with geometric panels of leather at the shoulders. They may have been spare, but they weren't plain.
16 February 2011
According to Italo Zucchelli, he'd designed Calvin Klein's Fall menswear with one clear function in mind: protection. The heavily padded coats and blousons, the weighty fabrics, even the shoes with shock-absorber soles added a ton of substance to the collection, at the same time as they allowed Zucchelli to make a major silhouette statement—round versus lean. The contrast was cartoon-graphic. It also made the collection Zucchelli's strongest in a while. The functionality pointed to the kind of character-rich subtext the designer excels at. His men often suggest American archetypes (which is appropriate, given Calvin Klein's place in U.S. fashion). Here, it was diverting to imagine the new Calvin man as blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth, maybe just back from a war somewhere, wearing his demob suit while he job-hunts. And there was Zac Efron, solid and suited in the front row, his marine buzz cut making him the physical embodiment of the notion.Was that an echo of the 1940's? The 2040's? Such retro-futurism is why the movieGattacais such an easy cross-reference for Zucchelli. Chasing an urban noir vibe, the designer used a palette of concrete, rust, steel, loden, and shadow. He actually called one color "gotham." The square cut of the jackets, the deeply pleated pants, full in the thigh, would have suited the wardrobe of that film-noir standby, the private detective. So would a belted trench with storm flaps. But Zucchelli's fascination with fabric tech means his private tec could have stepped out of the future as much as the past.There was a final flourish that allowed the mind to run away with that forties fantasy one last time. Instead of satin, shiny tape trimmed a tuxedo lapel and the seams of a trouser leg. You could almost imagine Zac—in character, of course—dressing up his best black suit in this way, while his girl drew a line down her leg with eyebrow pencil to duplicate seamed stockings. You've seen such glamorous home economy in old movies, right? Irresistible!
12 February 2011
Smack-dab in the middle of a rack of pre-fall clothes at theCalvin Klein Collectionshowroom was a short sleeveless shift dress in black wool. "That," Francisco Costa explained, "is a new take on our best-selling dress from Spring. The stores were asking for a more wintery version." Costa followers will remember the dress in question; it had an easy, almost sacklike shape, but what was really noteworthy was its hue, a deep sea blue. Still, it works in a darker key, too.The showroom today was mostly shades of black, white, gray, and foundation colors, but it was very much a continuation of his most recent runway show. Costa called it "minimal, almost monastic." That came across most strongly in the versatile tunics, shown both as dresses and as tops over his narrow, cropped Southport pant, and via his long, ankle-skimming, loose-fitting dresses and collarless coats. But this assured collection wasn't entirely devoid of sex, either. He dubbed a short, fitted black number with a doubled leather belt his "power dress" for its results-oriented silhouette. He also argued that bonded, double-face black leather has become a signature for the house. The more you wear the coat he cut from the stuff, the better it will fit—just like a glove, in fact.
6 December 2010
At his fashion show after-party at the Lion, Francisco Costa said, "Calvin once told me something brilliant; he said, 'It's not about right or wrong, it's about the right time or the wrong time.'" Well, today was the right time for Costa. He's been practicing his brand of architectural minimalism for seasons. Now that the fashion world has come back around to the less-is-more ethos, he's gone and turned out a superconfident, uncompromising collection that shows everybody else how it's done.Costa has occasionally seemed more interested in fabric treatments than cut. For Spring he stripped everything superfluous away, focusing on proportion and fit to persuasive effect. He opened with a white racerback tank jumpsuit devoid entirely of embellishment save for a most delicate silk ribbon sashed at the waist. Anybody who ever doubted that minimalism could be sexy was instantly corrected, and the looks that followed had a similarly sensuous simplicity: Take, for instance, a loose-ish silk shift in a shocking shade of coral, or a silk crepe mid-calf dress with a plunging V-neck. A washed white silk tunic and matching cropped pants spliced by a sandy beige leather apron belt had a lot of fans at the after-party. "I saw it and it's all I want to wear," one guest said. "It wiped everything else away." Costa could probably tell you, endorsements don't come any better than that.
15 September 2010
Growing up on the coast of northern Italy, Italo Zucchelli identified Calvin Klein as the essence of American sportswear. Since becoming the house designer, he's fused the inherent athleticism of the label with his own instinctive strengths: tailoring and a feel for innovative fabrics. Today's show felt less like a synthesis of those elements and more of a culture clash.The good news included a jacket-pants-and-tee outfit in sand tones that was as elegant as anything Zucchelli has ever designed, a broad-shouldered suit with a gray marbled fleck, and the cloudburst version that closed the show. Other looks, like the shiny, oversize chino shirts, suffered from a slew of strange proportions. Cutoff tops seemed intended to suggest a gridiron player's workout wear but instead called to mind the Hulk's castoffs.The athletic theme also showed up in vertically and horizontally striped tops and pants that created the illusion of a single piece; they looked like they were waiting to be branded with a product, like a Formula One driver's coveralls. Zucchelli excels at exploring that sort of futuristic, man-as-automaton notion, but there was something literal about this take that felt less sophisticated than usual.
18 June 2010
Lara Stone, the famously curvy model and new face of the Calvin Klein campaigns, was all hourglass va-va-voom at the CFDA Awards on Monday night. In her strapless black Calvin dress, she looked sexy and fabulous, but those aren't the sort of adjectives designer Francisco Costa necessarily seeks to elicit on his Collection runway.Architecturalandunderstatedare more likely his preferred terms. After exploring geometric volumes in recent collections, Costa seemed to be interested in flattening the planes of the female form here. He stitched vertical seams onto the fronts of boxy yet soft silk cotton jackets and coats that erased the models' waists. Dresses (note the new below-the-knee lengths) came with horizontal tucks and pleats at the midriff, hips, or thighs, but these details purposely had a pressed-down look. In other words, the clothes were subtle in the extreme, and lovely in their quiet, serene way. For anyone hankering for a bit more oomph, a lemon yellow velvet ankle-skimming shift provided a zing of color, and an ivory double-breasted trouser suit delivered a bold bit of straightforward structure.
8 June 2010
Today's Calvin Klein Collection show began with a musical composition and light show by Alva Noto (a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai) specially conceived for the occasion. The room went dark and spotlights that looked vaguely like stacked vertebrae pulsated to the rhythm of the soundtrack. It was a fittingly conceptual beginning for Francisco Costa's Fall lineup, which was pared down in the extreme.The designer opened with a streamlined collarless coat in lustrous black cupro. Its molded, rounded shoulders and full sleeves turned up later in a double-faced wool suit jacket worn with a wrap skirt, as well as in an ivory crepe and leather long-sleeve T-shirt teamed with matching high-waisted, cropped pants. If the stiff, sculptural shapes of these pieces weren't the most flattering, Costa's two other areas of interest this season—regimented tailoring and shift dresses—paid more careful attention to the lines and curves of the female body.A midnight blue trench in stretch technical wool had a commanding presence. (The fact that Stella Tennant wore it probably helped; along with Kirsty Hume and Kristen McMenamy, the nineties supe was there to represent the golden era of minimalism.) A hammered-cashmere cape, two curving arches cut away from its hem, was equally dramatic. As for Costa's sleeveless shifts, what made them compelling was their glossy, liquid-mercury fabrics or, alternately, their calla lily-inspired draped shapes. Evening was represented by a trio of silver silk Lurex columns with subtle gridlike embroideries. They aren't exactly red-carpet-friendly (sorry, front-row attendees Kerry Washington, Kate Bosworth, Isabel Lucas, and Naomi Watts). But in their spare simplicity—like the best pieces in this collection—they're undeniably cool.
17 February 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
13 February 2010
Francisco Costa scaled down his presentation, opting for an informal showing instead of a runway, but he didn't skimp an inch on the fabric or construction of the luxe basics in his pre-fall lineup. His blouson toggle coats and jackets are cut from a double-face cashmere wool that's a dream to touch, while his slim, flat-front pants are completely dart-less: "It took a long time to get the fit right," he said. "It's all in the cut around the butt, the thighs." Also innovative were his matte cashmere knits, made on a circular knitting machine to create a relaxed, cocoonlike silhouette.Overall, Costa takes a less experimental approach to this collection than he does his catwalk shows—a strategy not without its benefits. How's this for versatile: Hanging on the racks were navy, ruby, and nectarine versions of many of the 17 black and white looks he put on models. Still, there was plenty of fashion with a capital F, notably in the easy-chic, pleated georgette dresses that were actually tops worn with ankle-length skirts.
6 December 2009
Practicing his signature brand of arty minimalism, Francisco Costa replaced the sharp angles and dark colors of his Fall lineup with soft, organic shapes and light-reflecting neutrals. It made for a Spring collection more sensuous than blatantly sexy—and more youthful in feeling than his recent efforts. He opened with a white one-sleeve bubble dress that, like the needle-punched nylon coat that came down the runway a few looks later, caught air behind the model as she walked. When he wasn't experimenting with volume, Costa was creating interesting textures: smocking and puckering cotton voile for an A-line shift, or hand-pleating and pintucking an organdy dress. Playing natural off techno, and sheer against opaque, the designer sent out mohair jacquard tank dresses that shaded from black to brown to gray and revealed subtle swaths of skin. The only departure from the show's earthy palette was a group of crinkled silk-cotton tank dresses and asymmetrical shifts in shades of pale aqua, citron, coral, and jade.If there's a criticism to be made, it's that the unstructured bareness of these clothes requires the sylphlike frame of a Thandie Newton, who sat in the front row along with Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, and Jamie Dornan. But the weightless ease of these dresses has an undeniable appeal; this was a serene beauty of a collection from Costa.
16 September 2009
Style.com did not review the Spring 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
19 June 2009
Francisco Costa didn't put destination clothes on his Resort runway—no bikinis or caftans here—but the airy palette; the weightless, often diaphanous fabrics; and the way many of the looks fell away from the body did convey a mood of relaxed, unburdened ease. The "T dress," so named because of its off-the-shoulders silhouette, was a key piece—for day it was cut in transparent nylon and billowed asymmetrically to the knee; for evening it came in shimmering gray organza and grazed the top of the model's skimmy leather oxfords. A gold nylon knit jacket and matching bandeau top that evoked Fortuny seemed to radiate a light of their own, and an asymmetrical silk Lurex gown would positively glow at a sunset wedding. If the sheerness of many of the other pieces—see-through cuff-detail trousers?—was a bit puzzling, there were plenty of more practical but still chic options hanging on the showroom's racks.
2 June 2009
If the minimalism of Francisco Costa's Spring show veered into sci-fi territory, Fall has come back to earth—and to the body. Whereas last season was all about soft, three-dimensional geometries, the focus now is on fabrics and texture. Costa opened with a black coat with an asymmetrical neckline and a crescent hem that was pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle from wool and silk jacquard. He worked that paneling motif into a sleeveless sheath with slightly built-up shoulders, a bold flap jacket, and even a clingy knit mock turtleneck worn with a trim and neat pencil skirt.Continuing on, his experiments with surface treatments produced a skirtsuit from a holey felted wool that looked like lace and a gorgeous one-shoulder dress (in a season full of them) with plissé detail trailing across the bust. A laser-cut velvet dress in sulfur—when Costa deviates from black or charcoal, it's for something that really pops—proved once and for all that minimalism doesn't have to mean masculine. Which gets back to the point about the body. These were rigorous, defined, precise clothes, but they were also sexy. Nicely done.
18 February 2009
If Francisco Costa was in experimental mode on his Spring Calvin Klein runway, pre-fall found him thinking more practically. The effect was somewhat less intellectual, a whole lot more chic. Last season's dress-heavy lineup was replaced by a focus on tailoring, as the designer sent out a great hammered silk trench, a kimono coat with statement-making short sleeves, and a trim quilted jacket paired with knit pants tapering to the ankles (an effect achieved via zippers running up the backs of the calves). In place of Spring's sculptural geometries, Costa showed angular patchworks: The show closed with a pair of silk velvet dresses paneled for a vaguely Art Deco look. A green Lurex dress with shoulder pads out to there will take some nipping and tucking before it hits the sales floor, but otherwise these were clothes that could've stepped straight off the showroom runway and onto the street.
8 December 2008
Francisco Costa's Calvin Klein Collection was a meditation on form. Not the female form, but, rather, geometric shapes. Many of the pieces looked as if they were draped and pressed over cubes, so that the short sleeves of a dress or the side panels of a jacket retained their three-dimensional echoes. The process gave Costa's soft, luxurious fabrics an airy sort of volume that was reinforced by a strict, cool palette of white, nude, icy lavender, and polar blue. When the idea was worked subtly it produced some lovely pieces, notably a white strapless dress with intricate pleats and folds at the neckline that didn't ignore the female body underneath. Too often, though, form trumped function, and the clothes looked boxy and square—a look that's hard to pull off if you're not a curveless 16-year-old. Fall's Calvin collection showed Costa in better form: intellectual, yes, but not at the expense of sex appeal. This season, he didn't quite hit the mark.
10 September 2008
The season may be Spring 2009, but 2008 is an Olympic year, and this time around Italo Zucchelli offered his most comprehensive analysis yet of American sportswear. The Stars and Stripes even made an appearance, subtly embossed on tops. The sporting element was literalized in echoes of baseball and fencing (padded blousons and britches) and the use of athletic fabrics: gray jersey, cotton perforated like Airtex, a high-performance bonded paper. Paper? Yep, Zucchelli's fabric experimentation came up with something that looked like leather but was actually superstrong paper. Turn it into a tee, pair it with chambray jeans, and you had the Zucchelli pitch in a nutshell: emblematic sportswear items transmuted for the future.Same with the tailoring he has focused so tightly on since he came to Klein. Suits had a slightly boxier—or more generous—feel, but he whacked them with a hit of fluoro color so intense the audience actually gasped. It was an early sixties vision of the future—Mad Men Go to Mars—an impression that was helped along by Chet Baker on the soundtrack. As a European, Zucchelli's perspective on emblems of Americana is inevitably slightly distanced, ironic even. Hence the models' styling: silvery, swept-back hair, glassy blue eyes. In them, Zucchelli saw otherworldly athletic perfection.
23 June 2008
It was a little Issey, a little Chessy—as in Miyake during his eighties heyday, as in Rayner dressed in Madame Grès. In other words, Francisco Costa said "pleats, please" for Resort. During today's mini-show, a scaled-back presentation that suits the season well, the Calvin Klein designer used the technique on everything from icy-hued dresses with kimono sleeves to his modern take on that Grecian workhorse, the toga. A python motif also, ahem, snaked throughout, whether literally, in a white sharply cut, high-collared coat, or subtly printed on dresses or cleverly embossed on a khaki trench. Though understated, simple resin belts and teetering, strappy sandals added necessary edge. Unlike last season's swimsuit-inspired line, this was a collection for city streets—not a single bikini in the bunch.
18 May 2008
In nearly five years at Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa has proven that he's the most precise of designers, and his Fall collection was almost regimental in its discipline. The models were nearly makeup-free, their hair pulled back in severe ponytails, and the clothes were just as uncompromising.After Spring's dress-heavy lineup, Costa zeroed in on tailoring, opening with a cashmere mantle coat in deepest navy that topped a fitted shirt and a straight-line skirt. Their clean surfaces set an austere mood from which the designer hardly deviated. A color-blocked A-line shift followed a collarless jacket worn with pencil-thin leggings, and an overscale, boxy men's jacket followed an asymmetrical, away-from-the-body boiled wool dress. Two coats, one single-breasted, the other double (not that there was a button or closure to be seen), were deceptively simple and simply beautiful. Other toppers were razor-cut at the lapels to reveal a flash of what the model was wearing underneath.Costa has had a big year, crisscrossing the globe several times to promote the brand and cultivating important celebrity relationships along the way. Liv Tyler, who was to co-host his after-party at the Waverly Inn, sat front and center, next to Ali Larter. It's curious, then, that the designer showed only three special-occasion dresses: accordion-pleat gowns that draped from one shoulder or dipped low in front. Their metallic silk glittered under the runway lights, but it wasn't quite enough to generate real fashion excitement. Indeed, the audience for a collection as rigorous as this may be limited. Still, fans of Costa's brand of minimalism came away more than satisfied.
6 February 2008
At least one thing qualifies Italo Zucchelli as a natural heir to Calvin Klein's legacy, and that's his appreciation of the male form as Calvin defined it (with, of course, a whole lot of help from Bruce Weber). In much the same way that Balenciaga used to reassure his clients he'd give them a perfect body with the cut of his cloth, Zucchelli, in his latest collection, offered illusions of well-defined masculinity: a chunky white sweater with gridiron shoulders; trousers cut on the bias to emphasize the slender length of a leg; a monochromatic mélange of suit and shirt, which helped to elongate the silhouette. There has always been a futuristic sleekness to Zucchelli's work, but here his use of fabrics that responded to the body's heat crossed over to sci-fi realms. A vestigial rib cage developed like a photograph on one model's T-shirt as he passed. Later, a spine began to appear on the back of the same model's jacket. Yes, it reads like a gimmick, but the effect was haunting. As was Zucchelli's use of the kind of the webbing one usually associates with cheap plastic patio furniture, here mounted on mesh and offered as a blouson. It looked simultaneously medieval and futuristic,KagemushameetsGattaca.Post-show, the designer had one word for his inspiration: "Industrial." That webbing was the clearest illustration of industrial production processes; the creative use of zippers was another. Then there were the fabrics, such as the camel hair coated with a transparent film, or the shimmering nylon mesh that was used in suits that left a silvery after-image on the retina when they'd gone. This combination of the traditional and the technical is Zucchelli's way of twisting the traditions of American sportswear, and it's working. Now we find out if the world is ready for it.
14 January 2008
Francisco Costa was still sporting a tan from his holiday in Tulum, Mexico, but it was the snow-covered slopes he seemed to have on his mind at his pre-fall presentation. Knit ski pants and ribbed turtlenecks in ivory, tan, charcoal, or black were the building blocks upon which he layered boxy cable knits, rich shearling sweaters, and belted cocoon coats. For day, the standout was a camel suit—actually, a sleek leather blazer worn with full, pleat-front trousers. Come evening, the streamlined sensibility of Costa's après-ski theme peaked in a pair of dramatic two-piece gowns in which taupe leotard-tight tops were paired with high-waisted, long narrow skirts in shocking pink or teal. Should we expect similar fare at his Fall show next month? Yes, he said, but sexier, with more structure and hourglass shapes.
7 January 2008
Francisco Costa's strong Fall message meant expectations were high today at Calvin Klein. The collection began with an all-white passage: a lean, chalky jacket, bodysuit, and high-waisted skirt; a shift with nothing to interrupt its lines from shoulder to shin but the model's narrow curves. Slowly working color in, Costa showed a short-sleeve leather jacket decorated in a barely traceable graphite pattern with slim, tapering pants and followed that look with a gray wrap dress softly draped at the back. A trio of long T-shirt dresses with seamless shoulders in pretty, vivid shades of blue and green stood out, but Costa seemed to prefer neutrals. A bias-cut backless halter gown that closed the show was a shade of buff that barely registered.Here and there, a curving seam interrupted the spare, clean canvas of these clothes, as did the extra panels on the fronts of the dresses. It wasn't enough, however, to alleviate the quiet repetitiveness of the collection as a whole. Yes, it was minimalist in the style of old-school Calvin, but there was a whiff of Raf Simons' Jil Sander here, too. Now that Costa has proven he has original ideas, we expect something more inventive from him.
10 September 2007
What better season than resort to build a collection around a bathing suit? Francisco Costa showed not only two-pieces and cut-out maillots—sometimes as layering pieces underneath suits either boxy or slim—but also body-loving, clingy dresses color-blocked in shades of aqua, coral, and cement. Since not everyone is as bikini-ready as his models, there were some billowy tent dresses as well, the best of which came with an icy gray bodice and a shocking pink skirt. Eveningwear fell somewhere between those two poles: A trio of white dresses cascaded to the floor in weightless clouds of jersey and stretch crepe.
2 July 2007
If you're going to adopt American icons as your theme, you could do much worse than to start with Bruce Weber, America's greatest modern iconographer. And Weber makes even more sense for Calvin Klein designer Italo Zucchelli, because the photographer's campaigns for the label created some of the most iconic publicity images of the past 30 years. But what truly hovered over Zucchelli's latest Calvin collection was the spirit of the photographs Weber took of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team for a special issue ofInterview. The chiseled perfection of the models with their aerodynamic hair echoed Weber and, beyond that, Leni Riefenstahl's Aryan androids.The clothes were infused with an athleticism so overt that some of them could have leapt straight from catwalk to parallel bars without an eyeblink. Airtex tops, tanks, Lycra shorts, and leather trackpants suggested workout wear. A sweatsuit was exactly that: jacket and trousers tailored out of sweatshirting. An outfit that looked like a gymnast's one-piece topped by a flesh-toned jacket tailored to Zucchelli's demanding specs just about summed up this designer's cerebral take on the physical. Perhaps such a thing is inevitable when a European eye is trained on an American fashion institution—what it ultimately means is that Zucchelli's evolution of the Klein ethos is producing some of the most modern and perversely attractive menswear around. E.g., blue and silver blousons produced in a lenticular process that gives them an alien shimmer, or shirt and trousers seamlessly fused into one jumpsuit moment. Soundtrack note: James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem would surely appreciate the irony of his track "North American Scum" looping throughout a show devoted to American icons.
25 June 2007
Sometimes it takes a mistake to point you in the right direction. Francisco Costa¿s strong yet spare Fall show today made instant history of his much-maligned Spring collection.First out was a funnel-neck coat in lead gray (the non-color of the season) with sloping shoulders and gently curving seams to the knee. From there, he moved on to an oversize cashmere waffle-knit pullover, a boxy wool-tweed poncho, and a tech-y piqué hoodie that looked lacquered in its stiffness. Some jackets came with notch collars that draped down the back to form a ridgelike V.Whereas outerwear seemed to be about the negative spaces between clothes and bodies—a potentially pretentious concept that nonetheless produced results—dresses hugged every curve his models had. The trio of gowns that closed the show clung to their ankles. Easier for navigating a cocktail party was a strapless blue number with a molded bustier. Or a marble-print wool-felt sheath with face-framing collar that gave new meaning to the term "portrait neckline."This was precise and assured minimalism, and sexy to boot. Costa has found the winning combination.
7 February 2007
Ask just about anyone anywhere in the world what "Calvin Klein" means and they'll likely answer "gray underwear." Italo Zucchelli has anticipated and subverted that response with his new collection. It wasn't just that nearly everything he showed was gray, or that he attached the iconic waistband to slim-line cotton jersey trousers. There was much more going on. "Chic and innovative" was Zucchelli's stated aim, and the tone set by his sleek techno-tailoring was reminiscent of the not-so-distant-future elegance ofGattaca(not the first time Andrew Niccol's unjustly neglected work of vision has reared its head this season). There were also echoes of arch–fashion futurist Thierry Mugler's golden years, in jackets that dispensed with lapel notches or in colors that were unabashedly synthetic in their intensity. Zucchelli's fascination with the tension between the organic and the artificial blossomed with this collection as well: Fuzzy knits and glove-soft leather faced off against hard techno-fabrics. He also seemed to be offering an ironic comment on the current dialogue between fashion and furniture design when he showed jackets in shearling or felted wool that were encased in clear plastic, like a couch cover. But aside from such eccentric subtexts, Zucchelli continues to offer sharply tailored coats and suits (a gold gabardine looked right for the season) that redefine Klein for a new age.
16 January 2007
Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa took home the Designer of the Year award from the CFDA earlier this summer. That¿s a lot to live up to, but from the looks of his spring collection, no one put quite as much pressure on Costa as he did himself. Today, he second-guessed his way off his own forward-moving trajectory and seemed to wind up in the archives of Helmut Lang. Yes, there was a lightness to portions of this collection that recalled the work he began last year. But unlike those A-line tent dresses, the transparent fabrics he used today were shirred, pleated, tucked, and folded to the nth degree. In short, they were sorely lacking in simplicity.A more streamlined grouping of sporty layered tank dresses, along with cropped jackets and skirts cut from tech-y fabric that resembled breathable athletic mesh had a bit more American ease. And it should be noted that the collection wasn¿t entirely without fabulous items. He put a great oversized black parka on Natalia Vodianova, who was back on his runway exclusively for the first time after giving birth to her second child this spring. Before starting work on next season, Costa will have to learn to trust his own proven instincts again.
13 September 2006
Somewhere in his misspent youth, Italo Zucchelli had a passion for all things New Wave. The angularity, the precision, the minimalist techno-edge that reduces the unnecessary... they've all been present and correct in Zucchelli's collections for Calvin Klein. For spring, he carved the lapel off a fitted black jacket, which he then showed on the kind of platinum blond boy who populated endless bands in the eighties. Shirts featured tiny button-down collars (another token of the eighties). One top had no collar but a little zip. Stir in the icy New Wave-y color palette and a burst of Siouxsie on the sound track and...well, you get the picture.This was no mere exercise in nostalgia, though. As with Mod before it, the upside of New Wave has always been its intrinsic modernism, so it makes sense that Zucchelli, who is one of menswear's great modernists, would be drawn to it. And with this collection, he projected the idea into the future. The fabric technology alone would make the subject of a fine dissertation. Jackets in a fine mesh had a neoprenelike gleam. Even a more familiar material like linen was glazed to a seductive sheen for a suit in a bitter-chocolate shade. On that note, Zucchelli's color scheme was as intriguing as ever—aqua trousers, an eau-de-nil blouson, and a purple nylon trench counterpointed black, white, and gray.This time around, the designer relaxed his body-conscious silhouette a little, except for an odd experiment with leggings that left nothing to the imagination. He said he found them sexy, but men who are more modest about leg-baring will be glad to know that he also produced the best shorts of the season.
28 June 2006
After last season's air conditioner breakdown and the swelter that ensued, the Calvin Klein team was in the market for a new show venue. The minimal white West 39th Street space they opted for today may not have been the very last word in comfort, but it was a huge improvement over Milk Studios. Kudos then to whoever oversaw the switch in location—and to Francisco Costa, whose fall collection, if not as strong as his spring breakthrough, was a competitive runner-up. The Brazilian designer is in his seventh season with the house, and perhaps it's time to stop counting. He's charting his own course now.Costa can work a theme like nobody's business. His last go-around, it was circles; for fall, he zeroed in on herringbone. At its most basic, that meant cutting full trousers in the traditional menswear fabric, but this was not a collection about basics. Dress after airy dress was embroidered with V-shape patterns of varying sizes, picked out in wool or bugle beads, and several were real stunners. Take, for instance, the pair of fire-engine-red chiffon gowns that closed the show, or another number in black and brown that cascaded below the knee in wool box pleats, then hobbled above the ankle. It had substance, unlike some of the lighter-weight gowns, which wandered a little too close to lingerie territory. At retail, linings will be in order; apart from anything else, these are fall clothes. More traditionally seasonal in vein were a series of black wool-crepe coats with wide cuffs, inverted pleats on the sleeves, and trapeze hems. They showcased Costa's skills as a tailor and left the audience hankering for a few more suits with that same attention to luxe detail.
8 February 2006
Bad television reception qualifies as Milan fashion week's most idiosyncratic inspiration, which will probably make the independent-minded Italo Zucchelli very happy. The pixelated bands of color on his knitwear and the black-and-white distortion that patterned an entire suit had the abstract but graphic quality that the Calvin Klein menswear designer has always loved. Again on show in his tailoring were the tonic fabric effects he is also partial to, though he's shortened the jackets, broadened the shoulders, and significantly tightened the trousers for fall. The result: a chunky bully-boy silhouette.In the past, Zucchelli's collections have been built on a face-off between smooth and rough, and that dichotomy was evident here too. On the one hand, there was a shirt stitched in sophisticated grids; on the other, a leather sweatshirt with zippered shoulders. And the face-off continued in Zucchelli's new focus on the coat, which he offered in an array of fabrics: Harris tweed, nubbly wool, shearling with exposed seams, and gabardine, matched to trousers.The famed Calvin Klein affinity for the American Southwest came through in a chunky sweater that, from one sleeve to another, was graded to suggest sunset shading into night. There were also—again the smooth with the rough—lizard loafers that could have slipped straight off a reptile's back.
18 January 2006
The air-conditioning was on the fritz late Thursday afternoon at Milk Studios, and as the Calvin Klein audience wilted in the bleachers, some wondered aloud why the poor conditions persisted. After all, this wasn't a cash-strapped fashion upstart that people had come out for, but an iconic American brand owned by a multibillion-dollar company. Many resorted to fanning themselves with their program notes, which offered some relief, but not enough. It's too bad, because Francisco Costa, now in his sixth season at Calvin, turned out one of his strongest, and coolest, collections to date.Circles and, to a lesser extent, the sixties were his themes, made evident in Empire-waist dresses with tiny dots and oversize, geometric designs silk-screened onto A-line shifts. He even offered his own minimalist take on one of the season's big trends, ruffles, by stringing circles together and stitching them at their centers to the hem of a cocktail number. Pleating on cotton voile, georgette, and chiffon (Note to stylist: Lose the skimpy panties) was another recurring motif. But it wasn't all about wovens. He reclaimed the cable knit from the bookish set, and draped jersey into a couple of soft day dresses. These last two looks were most reminiscent of the old Calvin. Now that Costa is developing his fresh, new signatures, maybe it's time for a fresh, new venue.
14 September 2005
Since Calvin Klein himself has always had an affinity for the American Southwest, it made sense for the label's current designer, Italo Zucchelli, to seek inspiration in the same neck of the mesa. His spring 2006 collection came in shades of sand, stone, and sky, and his tailored pieces featured a tonic effect that called to mind the hard sheen of desert light. A reptile-print jacket looked sun-bleached; leathers were paper-thin, as though worn by the elements. A chambray shirt and trousers suggested a gas jockey somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, there was a working-man edge to a lot of the clothes—a stone jeans-'n'-jacket combo, waxed cotton jackets in sand and navy, even a pair of dungarees (these were dressed up with a peak-shouldered jacket in the same fabric—it was Zucchelli's own favorite outfit in the show, he said).Pitch-dark desert nights, meanwhile, were evoked by an indigo jacket over a T-shirt in a purple that suggested the last of the sunset. Romantic allusions aside, there was a lot of technology at work here: what looked like crinkled linen was actually an effect achieved by blending cotton with an iron fiber. Hard-wearing indeed, for long hot summers in the urban desert.
29 June 2005
Francisco Costa's four-season tenure at Calvin Klein has produced collections that have both delighted and disappointed. (Part of his challenge was that fashion was having a maximal moment, while the Klein label has always been about minimalism.) But something changed with this show, which was full of signs that Costa is now really ready to flex his muscles. In a week where many designers seemed to be searching for an identity—and channeling someone else's look while they figure it out—Costa decided to stay true to the Calvin Klein brand: clean, supple, luxurious clothes made for city life.Costa produced a fall wardrobe that was rich in detail, finish, and texture, with a slim, somewhat sixties silhouette, counterpointed with the occasional controlled bursts of volume. There were exemplary ink-navy suits, sleek and streamlined, with small jackets, and skirts that finished just above the knee. (One jacket had a mink hood attached, making it look simultaneously sporty, practical, and decadent.) There were some wonderful coats: linear funnel neck numbers constructed from square panels of black cashmere, or cut from caramel patent leather, and an A-line fur that combined mink and shearling. Even in its most basic moments—the gleaming satin roll necks, and the lean pants—this collection was imbued with the spare, architectonic look that Calvin Klein pioneered way back when, and which now seems more relevant than ever.
9 February 2005
Italo Zucchelli's approach to his design duties at Calvin Klein is a clear case of evolution, rather than revolution. This season saw him once again exploring the tension between opposing elements: casual and elegant, masculine and feminine, and, most of all, night and day, with the application of clever eveningwear touches to daywear. These included half French cuffs on shirts, rolled satin waistbands—like a mini cummerbund—on trousers, and tuxedo lapels on a black wool jacket.The marriage of dressy and sporty is one of fall's strongest trends, and Zucchelli gave it his own spin with a dark, decadent color palette derived from gemstones. The lustrous sheen of the materials he chose helped, too. A ponyskin coat and jacket and wet-look leather jeans glistened, while suits had varying degrees of shimmer.Subtletywas a watchword: look closely and many of those jacket-and-pant combinations don't quite match. It was the same with the Mondrian-like intarsia detailing on jackets, both leather and cloth. On the runway, this came across as an occasional embellishment. But visit the showroom, explained Zuchelli, and you'll find intarsia workmanship is a strong theme of the entire collection.
18 January 2005
Francisco Costa is settling in at Calvin Klein. Taking over from an icon is an unenviable task, and the creative director has had a couple of bumpy moments in the past three seasons. But with this collection, Costa is moving in the right direction: continuing Klein's theme of simple, sensuous sportswear while putting his own stamp on the look.But "stamp" might be too strong a word. Costa sent his dewy-browed models out to a soundtrack of plaintive acoustic pop, rather than the sometimes-jarring electronica or rap of yore. And the message was luxurious softness, from the fine knits worn atop lean skirts or pants cropped just above the ankle, to the fluid jerseys done in body-conscious dresses, to supple coats and jackets made from pale lambskin bonded to gray cotton knit.Sometimes, it got a bit too soft; fashion is clearly loosening its look this season, but Costa veered into downright shapeless territory with some of the boxy tops and long jersey dresses. Odd colors popped up, too, like a Tropicana-bright orange jersey gown. But a fluttery scarf dress, and some of the color-blocked gowns he sent out at the end, looked just right. Costa has more to do to truly merge his sensibility with Klein's mammoth history, but this was his most confident outing yet.
13 September 2004
Time was when Italo Zucchelli, the menswear design director for Calvin Klein, felt color was a part of his repertoire that should be used sparingly, if at all. But now that his world has expanded—this was his second season at the helm of this collection—so have his views on the spectrum. Still, Zucchelli hasn't quite shaken his former ways. His use of a brighter palette was edgy, even provocative; the tones slightly off, to make them fresh and interesting. When the green, for instance, was offered as a mossy suit or a grassy polo, it instantly looked like the color of the season. Likewise the butter-yellow trousers or the red tending toward maroon in another tonic suit.It wasn't only vivid tones that the designer used to give voice to his newjoie de vivre; there were leafy/floral prints as well. After the show, Zucchelli talked about reconciling opposites—colors along with textures and moods (a dressed-up suit with a dressed-down T-shirt, for example). Bringing it all together just so; now there's the mark of a real leader.
29 June 2004
It can’t be easy to take the wheel from a designer whose global name recognition is somewhere up there with Coca-Cola. So, it was understandable that Francisco Costa’s first collection as head of Klein’s women’s line, last spring, was somewhat tentative. Now it’s time for Costa to show that he’s fully in command, and his fall show came up disappointingly short.Costa mixed supple, thin fabrics like washed silk, charmeuse, chiffon, gauzy mohair, and cashmere against bulkier wool felt, shearling, and ponyskin, in a typically limited color palette of black, ivory, cream, pinky-brown, steel blue, and peach. He showed flowing silk dresses and mid-calf skirts, slit up the thigh or sliced into awkward flaps along the hem, and loose, hip-length self-belted jackets. There were dramatic black motorcycle-type jackets, cut oversize from ponyskin or felt and worn over fragile underpinnings. Mixed into the outfits were some promising pieces: a short black wool jacket, a black angora and chiffon tank top, a sheer white shirt, some lovely pintucked dresses. But overall, the collection lacked exactly the kind of clean, effortless, coolly pretty clothes that Klein taught the world to want.
11 February 2004
It was the same runway in the same giant photography studio with the same top models strutting in front of the same audience—all as in seasons past. But for the Spring show at Calvin Klein, there was one very large difference: That wasn’t Calvin taking the bow. Last winter, the designer sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen, stepped back from day-to-day design duties, and named Francisco Costa, an ex-Gucci designer, head of the women’s collection. Cue lights…Given the intimidation factor—Klein observed the show from the sidelines—it’s not surprising that Costa played his debut on the safe side. The collection was very Klein in spirit, hewing to a palette of black, white, and warm brown tones with occasional shots of creamy orange and pink. There were elegantly limp knits in featherweight cashmere, viscose, and silk layered under leather jackets; crisp shirts billowing out over tiny shorts or slim tailored pants; and the kind of interesting details that Klein would have used to raise the occasional eyebrow (a lacy, laser-cut lambskin coat, a bright pink taffeta tunic dress, and clear Lucite pumps with neon-bright straps).How much influence Klein still wields in the design room is unclear, but Costa seems determined not to veer too far from the founder’s course. Then again, why mess with fantastic success? When the show closed with Natalia in a fluttery organza-and-tulle dress that was clearly related to fall’s ruffled robes, it was far more homage than farewell.
15 September 2003
It seemed like just another pre-show melee at Calvin Klein’s Friday afternoon presentation: packs of photographers jostling to get shots of Hilary Swank, Renée Zellweger and Clare Danes as editors and retailers milled sociably. But in fact there was a sea change taking place: That day, the designer officially closed the $430 million deal to sell the company he and partner Barry Schwartz started 35 years ago to Philips-Van Heusen. Klein claims he’s going to help the new owners build his name into a billion-dollar megabrand—but that’s a world of shoe and underwear licenses, not designer sportswear. And whether he’ll still have the appetite to do a collection every six months remains to be seen.His fall collection read like a mixed reaction. There were classic Klein touches—that gracefully minimalist cut, in perfectly fitting slim trousers and neat wool flannel jackets with firmly squared-off shoulders and whip-thin leather belts. He showed plenty of dresses, many sleeveless and cut with a flirty little flounce just above the knee. And as might be expected from a man who started as a coat designer, there was good-looking outerwear: a boxy wool bouclé style, a black shearling baseball jacket as plush as a teddy bear, sleek black leathers and supple cashmeres. But there were elements that didn’t compute, like an odd red-green-gold abstract print, poufy bubble skirts and—given his obvious appeal to the Hollywood contingent—a disappointing absence of the glamorously simple eveningwear he’s offered up in the past.
13 February 2003
Calvin Klein’s collections can have a hypnotic effect. Avoiding bells and whistles, he sends out utterly simple clothes that, through cut, color and drape, lull the watchers—who this season included Sandra Bullock and Gwyneth Paltrow—into a willing state of desire.The designer’s darkly monastic fall collection, with its military overtones, is a thing of the past. Using a palette of teal blue, ivory, taupe, shell pink, white and black, he sent out a spring line that was as gentle as a sea breeze on a summer day. Luxury fabrics—supple viscose, fluid silk charmeuse, crisp linen, buttery glove leather and sheer chiffon—took the tailoring into a new realm and emphasized Klein’s command of understated sex appeal. (This is a designer who can turn a humble basic like a tank top or a knit camisole into a seductive tool, just by placing the neckline precisely so it strokes the model’s collarbone.) A more overt sexiness was also in evidence, via bra tops and corsets paired with severe tailored trousers, skinny low-slung skirts and tight black jersey dresses. The sportswear front was equally well represented, with crisp shirts and shirtdresses, oversize leather jackets with quilted or channel-stitched collars, and a sweeping suede camel trench. Klein ended the show, like a good day at the beach, with a feast of sweets: pretty, pastel dresses detailed with sunbursts of pintucking or bands of ruching, and a generous serving of vanilla-colored silk jersey dresses replete with cascading ruffles.
18 September 2002
Calvin Klein is one of the great zeitgeist readers of our time. His collections, like his famous ad campaigns, always reflect and amplify some aspect of the national mood, but filtered through his cool, minimalist aesthetic. And in his beautiful Fall show, Klein mirrored a sober but still sensuous attitude toward life during wartime.Klein's first group was, like many this week, all black, starting with a fitted coat whose seams were traced in leather and followed by sweeping dresses, pleated skirts and tops done in flowing fabrics. He then introduced tones of brown, gray and navy, and worked in military references, like a taupe Eisenhower jacket and a few officer's greatcoats recut with the new, higher waistline. But while Klein's smart menswear tailoring touches were present throughout—pants cut slim but not skintight, jackets that sat just above the waist—the net effect was always feminine, helped by sexily transparent knits, floaty georgette tops and a fit that lightly grazed the body.Klein's eveningwear is always noteworthy for its inventive cut and restrained romance, and he didn't disappoint this season. He sent out a gorgeous series of dresses assembled from diamond-shaped pieces of satin that will make even the most determined nesters long for a black-tie evening.
14 February 2002
"It's not all I planned to show, but this selection encapsulates the general feeling of the collection," said Calvin Klein. Demonstrating New Yorkers' eagerness to get back to business as usual, Klein staged a small showroom presentation just a few days after fashion week had to be canceled."There's lots of boyish shapes and silhouettes," said Klein as the first model took to the makeshift runway. "Jackets and coats are cut with large shoulders. Everything is big, but not too big." Klein officially launched a new Spring favorite: the mannish, oversize white shirt, which can be thrown over snappy shorts, tucked into full, pleated trousers or worn with a hefty belt as a short, sexy dress. Pinstripe trousers matched with a half-sleeve button-down offered a playful take on traditional power dressing, while a group of aubergine and navy dresses with Deco-inspired paneling and stitching offered a more feminine counterpoint to the masculine tailoring. ("They remind me of the Chrysler building," said Klein.)What about accessories? Those who are already fearing boot overload by the time March rolls around will be more than ready for Klein's no-nonsense gladiator sandals and flat patent slides. On the hunt for the perfect evening bag? A tiny, silver-beaded clutch could be just the thing—provided, of course, you never carry more than keys and lipstick.
16 September 2001
Calvin Klein closed New York Fashion Week with a hard-edged, no-nonsense collection that neatly encapsulates the pared-down aesthetic that is a key component for Fall.It’s a perfect moment for Klein, who clearly feels right at home designing austere, stylish basics with a mannish twist. In his hands, the most subtle details are all it takes to make a difference: His black wool winter coat, for example, comes with a built-in, low-slung double-loop leather belt that gives it a perfect air of nonchalant chic. A classic peacoat is cut loose and slouchy, as if to emphasize the slim proportions of a short, sexy shift. Klein’s shearling dresses and aged, crackled napa vests, trousers and military coats are perfect for an urban warrior.But even the toughest girls need lightness and femininity once in a while, so Klein also sent out plenty of body-skimming asymmetric silk jersey dresses with playful cutouts—just as long as you remember to wear them with tough ankle boots instead of conventional heels.
15 February 2001
There was a sporty, ultra-casual feeling to Calvin Klein's Spring collection. Light iridescent silk V-necks, violet funnel-neck tops and microstripe jackets looked comfortable and ideal for a springtime country escapade. These looks were clearly geared toward younger customers, who will also appreciate Klein's simple graphic-block jersey dresses in contrasting colors like green tea, pale rose and cobalt, as well as his metalized leather ensembles, and a superfine suede dress with a matching, low-slung belt, which looked hip and sophisticated.Klein's uncomplicated mood extended to evening, which consisted of delicate camisoles in silk tulle, glimmering satin and glacé jersey with vivid optical color panels.Those who truly appreciate timeless, effortless dressing will find a consistent, wearable wardrobe at Calvin Klein, without having to bend backward in order to accommodate the trends of the nanosecond.
21 September 2000
VH1/Vogue Fashion AwardsDesigner of the Year nominee Calvin Klein's main strength lies in understanding what modern women want to wear, and providing it effortlessly. Always in tune with the fashion zeitgeist, Klein turned his attention to polished silhouettes and timeless classics, redone in luxurious fabrics and deep colors. Sporty 3/4-length trousers and cashmere tweed suits shared the runway with shiny alligator coats and metallic leather skirts; floor-sweeping coats made a powerful statement, as did the sheer satin dresses in inky hues. For evening, there were satin slips in aubergine, gunmetal, powder and ruby, as well as papery graphite ensembles and viscose jersey dresses. It was a controlled, sensible collection that encapsulated the feminine, ladylike mood of the moment.
10 February 2000
Fashion's king of minimalism showed a romantic, ethereal collection that played with almost imperceptible variations of light and pattern. Colors went from white to putty and pale blue to light gray in fabrics that were sheer and airy. Sophisticated coats and jackets were treated like redefined button-down shirts. Suits were feather-light but tailored razor-sharp, and classic dresses with built-in underwire bras brought the collection into the new millennium with the use of technologically advanced materials like micro-pinstripe opaque jersey.
16 September 1999
“It’s a new silhouette, graphic, defined, carved closer to the body,”Calvin Kleinsaid of this somewhat severe and highly polished collection, which persuasively argued,Voguewrote, “for the sexiness of sophisticated tailoring over bohemian sloppiness.” Though presented prior to the release ofThe Matrix, Klein’s lineup captured and translated the film’s kick-ass, neo-noir vibe into want-to-wear, on-brand fashion.
20 April 1999
Calvin Kleinfollowed his rather somber Fall ’98 show with whatVoguedescribed as a “blazing fiesta of orange and gold and red and chartreuse.” This was predominantly applied to the flowing finale dresses, many featuring asymmetries. There were plenty of day options in black and white for city clickers, too, including snug jersey dresses, blouson jackets, and suiting with sporty zip closures.
18 September 1998
This was a collection that crescendoed, hitting its high note in a finale of stunning eveningwear pieces. In addition to his signature slips, featuring sweeping hems this time around,Calvin Kleinincluded pants options, some worn layered under a sheer dress. Blush tones added variety to a black, white, gray, and brown color scheme.Voguedescribed the season, in which the designer also showed voluminous, ’50s couture-style coats, padded jackets, empire lines, and floor-length tent dresses, as Klein’s “bow to Japanese design.”
3 April 1998
Calvin Kleingave sportswear an ethereal spin for Spring. Models seemed to float over the venue’s concrete floor shod in delicate Peds-like shoes and wearing semi-transparent looks, some gathered with drawstrings, others accented with balloon hems. More substantial—and very American-looking—pieces, a few in khaki, added ballast to the collection.
7 November 1997
“No ’80s,” promisedCalvin Kleinto aVogueeditor in advance of his show—and he meant it. Opening with a gray funnel-neck flannel coat, Klein proceeded to introduce origami-style folds, subtle drapes, and a bit of color, which maximized the effect of looks as seemingly minimal as the models’ no-makeup makeup.
11 April 1997
Rich burgundies, Yves Klein blues, and saffron yellows were among the deep huesCalvin Kleinused in his Spring 1997 collection, presented at the Dia Center for the Arts. Models were alternately shod in laced men’s-style oxfords, flip-flops, and strappy high-heeled sandals, which hinted at the variety of looks and attitudes in the lineup. The strongest pieces were the draped and asymmetric ones. In one silver-slashed strapless number,Voguewrote that Klein was adding “an Eastern flavor to his minimalist ethic.”
1 November 1996
Gucci’s Tom Fordwasn’t the only designer to heed the siren song of the 1970s for Fall 1996, but few loved, and lived, the nightlife of that era better thanCalvin Klein, a onetime Studio 54 regular. Having experienced the decade firsthand, Klein’s interest wasn’t in replicating the past, but in capturing its spirit for a new generation. Using jerseys and knits, he brought long-lined silhouettes, wraps, and separates up to date with asymmetry and with art. In their pure simplicity, pieced jersey dresses recalled the abstract paintings of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.
2 April 1996
“I love color, but I want it in flowers, not clothes,”Calvin Kleinonce toldVogue. Evidently, he had a change of heart for Spring 1996. Mixed in among the neutrals—like the black-and-white color-blocked ensemble Shalom Harlow wore on the February 1996 cover of the magazine—were sherbet-color pastels, many made into scoop-neck tank dresses with racy backs borrowed from swimwear. Klein might have been California dreaming, but he was still awake to the needs of his city-slick customers. For them there were slim-cut suedes, work-appropriate suiting, and “streetwise” checks, too. Surfandturf, in other words.
3 November 1995
Classicis the adjectiveVogueapplied toCalvin Klein’s Fall 1995 collection; noting that its designer is “known for clean lines and eternal shapes.” His favorite silo this season was the neat, cookie-cutter, sleeveless sheath. “When I think back to Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly or Jackie Onassis, and how they dressed in the early ’60s,” Klein said at the time, “it was very refined; there was an elegance that modern women, and even very young women, if they can afford these clothes, I think are going to feel very new in.” Rounding out the collection were boxily tailored suits and natty double-breasted toppers, and continuing a story started in the Spring ’95 collection, variations on the timeless LBD.
14 April 1995
Calvin Klein managed to be both directional and consistent. And while fans could count on him to deliver clean, and usually neutral-toned, clothing each season, asVogueonce reminded its readers: “Sedate shades don’t mean unimaginative fashion.” His Spring 1995 collection was a case in point. Klein kept with the “ladylike to-the-knee length” that made headlines for Fall 1994, and applied it to neo-’60s shapes. The show progressed from Jackie-worthy suiting to LBDs that Holly Golightly would have loved, and ended with molten Jean Harlow–esque satin. Klein described his show as a “radical departure,” saying, “It’s not about layering or mixing and matching anymore, it’s about a suit or a dress—and that’s all you need—but it must be cut to perfection and enhance the body.”
3 November 1995
With his pale, lingerie-layered spring 1994 collection of slip dresses,Calvin Kleinsounded the final death knell for the tailored, dress-for-success power babe who was fast being replaced by the feminine waif, at once strong and soft à laKate Moss.Here were lounge-ready pieces—“nothing is stiff,” the designer said—for anyplace and anytime of day. They were deceptively simple, clothes that reflected Klein’s belief that the nineties, as he told Vogue, “are about the personal, about staying in and being alone, and not flaunting what you have on your back.”
2 November 1993