There has been no Calvin Klein -Catwalkshow in almost seven years. Calvin Klein himself did not attend a catwalk show for his brand in almost two decades. But on Friday the brand, now designed by Veronica Leoni, and Mr Klein returned.
It was day 2 of the New York Fashion Week and the official unveiling of the Calvin Klein-Collection, the high-end, high-fashion expression of the small look. The person who would prove that it is no longer just about jeans and underwear.
It was a return on more than one.
The show was held on the Gallery Space on the ground floor on 205 West 36th Street, the headquarters of the clothing district where Mr. Klein moved in the nineties and where the company stays. The space was white, according to the original Calvin minimalist aesthetics, with white benches and a white carpet with a new logo in the black font of the old obsession perfume ads. Mr Klein, 82, who sold his company to PVH to PVH in 2002 and has since usually been from the fashion grid, made his entrance into a natty, black three-part suit and tie as a good-Willem ambassador of another time.
Next to him was his former wife, Kelly Klein, and his former muses, Kate Moss and Christy Turlington, were in customized black Calvin jackets; Mrs. Moss wore a slip dress under her jacket. In the neighborhood, Mario Sorrenti, who had photographed her naked obsession advertisements when they were a few, chatting with friends.
“It is very emotional,” Mr Klein said that he was back in his old office building and saw his label on the runway again. It was a memory of the intoxicating days when Calvin Klein defined a certain kind of breathable, urban American Sportswear and attracted the crowd’s attention to New York. The sky was full of nostalgia.
So, for both good and bad, the clothes were.
In an interview before the show, Mrs. Leoni said that her goal was to pick up from the day. Mr. Klein walked out for the last time. She did this, with a collection of double genera that acted as a warm-up run through the Calvin Playbook of the late 1980s and 90s: slippery, clean lined C-suite suiting (check); minimum, cocooning outerwear (check); Lingerie -cocktaillooks (check); Grunge Plaids and Denim (Check). You get the idea.
There was even a ck one bottle, in honor of the 1994 perfume that once sold 20 bottles per minute, changed in an evening of minaudière and a small pendant worn around the neck like a charm. Mrs. Leoni proved that she understood and embraced the heritage.
The problem is, because Calvin left and the label has completed various iterations among his successor designers and especially since 2018, when PVH left the high-end collection many other brands, large and small, made their own versions of Calvin. Some of them are very good.
His influence helped to shape the row, Toteme, Phoebe Philo and smaller brands such as Kallmeyer. At this point, when a romance with all things the 90s is an omnipresent cultural phenomenon, it is understandable that Mrs. Leoni would want to bring the tribute and recover, the inheritance that is lawful of her. But it’s not enough.
She has to do more than just dealing with the past; She has to take it in the future. Mr Klein pushed boundaries in so many ways: with the provocation of placing his name on jeans and underwear, with his open sexual advertisements, with his willingness to strip off excess. To be really loyal to the brand, Mrs. Leoni should also move forward.
There were hints of this in her collection. For example, in the pajamas that have just been rolled-out-of-bed for men and women, ice-blue silk that slid around the body and made it comfortably more dressed.
Likewise in the blanket-like woolen jackets and trenches coupled to the torso, including a great look made of hundreds of resilient organza loops. Also in a strapless in the evening dress with a Sweetheart neckline and a train of silk fringe walked around one forearm like a sheet hastily wrapped the body because the doorbell had brought a delicate moment.
A gunmetal-gray t-shirt with long sleeves and skirt covered with enamelled sequins that could be brushed forward and backwards as a reversible sequin cushion offered decoration without frivolity. It begged practical to be touched. She should continue to lean in her own more twisted instincts.
At the end of the show, Mrs. Leoni took her bow and then ran to Mr. Small to express her respect. He kissed her on both cheeks, delighted. They had set their claim. It was a start.
