Calvin Klein, a brand that recently made waves with an ad campaign in which actor Jeremy Allen White can be seen wearing only his underwear, is going to take the plunge a little more. On Thursday, the company announced it would be restarting its high-end Collection business under a new creative director, Veronica Leoni, along with a return to the runway — and perhaps to its former position as New York Fashion Week’s tentpole.
Ms. Leoni will be the first designer Calvin Klein has had in five years and the first woman to lead the house. She is one of the few women to have been named to the top creative side of a major brand in the past year, while most of the big jobs have been given to white men.
Her appointment reflects the fact that jeans and influencers may not, in fact, be enough to maintain a global name even in the age of social media – that an actual design perspective may be necessary.
It’s also a sign of the current turmoil in the fashion world, which has seen a wave of designer appointments and reshuffles at brands like Valentino, Alexander McQueen and Moschino as the luxury sector is increasingly challenged by the macro-political and economic environment. Calvin Klein reports this Income 2023 of $3.9 billion, a growth of only 3 percent.
“We see this as an exciting opportunity to celebrate Calvin Klein’s return to its full expression as a fashion brand,” said Eva Serrano, Calvin Klein’s global brand president. “The market and the industry have changed and the consumer is more eclectic. We wanted to respond to this cultural change in a modern way.”
At Calvin Klein, Ms Leoni, 41 and Italian, will be responsible for men’s and women’s clothing, underwear and accessories, and her top collection will inform the wider business community and her presence on the red carpet, where in addition to dressing Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle Griner, for the 2023 Met Gala, it was largely absent. Just as it has been absent from the New York Fashion Week runway since 2018, when the last creative director, Raf Simons, was abruptly fired after less than two years.
Mr. Simons was hired to jump-start Calvin, which had never regained the aesthetic influence it had under its founder after its sale to PVH in 2002. Mr. Simons provided the brand with an urgent, dystopian take on Americana that the fashion world captivated but shocked the consumer. base – and sent the Calvin management team into a long period of austerity.
Though largely unknown outside the fashion world, Ms. Leoni Calvin brings with her a sensibility for twisted romantic minimalism born from stints at Jil Sander, Celine under Phoebe Philo and the Row. In 2020 she started her own label, Quira, named after her grandmother and a finalist for the 2023 LVMH Prize, the most lucrative prize for young designers in fashion. It also made her a name often whispered when a position opened up.
Her most recent collection, shown at Paris Fashion Week in March, featured a cast of diverse characters in carefully coordinated oversized tailoring, punctuated by the occasional draped chiffon dress. Ms. Leoni will continue to design Quira and will divide her time between Rome and New York.
“Calvin Klein has spent decades interpreting the daring idea of self-expression,” Ms. Leoni said in a statement. “I am willing to strengthen it.”
What exactly that means will be revealed when her first collection, for autumn 2025, is shown early next year. It will be one of the most anticipated debuts of New York Fashion Week, which has lost many of its once-legendary brands, making it ripe for a defining new figure. (Ralph Lauren now shows largely off schedule; Oscar de la Renta no longer appears at all. Thom Browne splits his time between New York and Paris; and Donna Karan has been sold and reinvented as a contemporary line.)
Ms Leoni’s appointment does not mean the end of the reshuffling of designers. In Paris, the top job at Givenchy remains open, and rumors are swirling that Hedi Slimane is planning to leave his post at Celine. The game of fashion musical chairs, which partly determines what we all want to wear next, which in turn crystallizes over a decade, is only just heating up.
