Since showing his first designs for Calvin Klein last year and renaming the brand’s ready-to-wear collection, Raf Simons has been mining Americana with his distinctive spin on classics such as denim shirts, plaid outerwear and patchwork motifs.
What he hasn’t done is overtly reference the clean aesthetic that made the brand synonymous with Nineties style icons like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. That minimal approach has been mostly confined to his tailoring, though Simons doesn’t like it too pristine: witness the raw seams on a black hourglass blazer in his pre-fall lineup, presented at the brand’s Sterling Ruby-designed Paris showroom.
This time, though, he also delved a little further into the brand’s archives, offering an expanded selection of streamlined basics that blended effortlessly with the Seventies-tinged silhouettes that have become his signature at the American label.
Calvin Klein 205W39NYC Pre-Fall 2019
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The change in direction comes as parent PVH reported softness in the Calvin Klein business in the third quarter, with ceo Emanuel Chirico promising “a more commercial product” in 2019.
There were corduroy skirts over velvet flared pants, oversized tweed jackets paired with ostrich feather tunics, pants in offbeat bicolor and bimaterial combos — and mixed in throughout, asymmetric cashmere capes that channeled the chic sportswear sensibility of the label’s founder.
Simons might style one of these with a pink trench coat made of lightweight viscose twill, tweed-and-denim pants and pointy silver shoes, but those sleek black capes would slot into most any stylish wardrobe. Ditto for the trench coats spliced from two subtly contrasting halves, which came in women’s and men’s versions.
Also new on the men’s front: the latest variation on the ugly sneaker, dubbed the Shift, which combines a retro-style fabric upper with what the brand dubbed a “magma melted” sole. It was typical of the kind of bold design that has made Simons a reference for the streetwear community.
But Calvin Klein is a $3.5 billion brand with broad appeal. Leaning into its heritage felt like a canny move — after all, fuss-free sportswear is as all-American as a pair of cowboy boots.