Ad campaigns

Calvin Klein: Nostalgia or Now?



Calvin Klein Collection SS25

Lots of people have been in my DMs asking for my thoughts on the Calvin Klein Collection reboot. Lies! One person asked, but I’m here to share my two cents anyway.

This show was the most highly anticipated of NYFW. If the relaunch of a 5-decades-old label is what’s getting people hyped about NYFW, that says rather a lot about the state of ennui. So, Veronica Leoni (formerly of The Row and Phoebe’s Celine) had a great deal resting on her spaghetti-strapped shoulders.

The show was beautiful. It was clean, serene, elegant and poised. It looked like 1990s Old Calvin. But is that a compliment? Or a problem?

Since every current womenswear brand of note – from Khaite to COS – now mimics the 90s minimalist aesthetic, it’s become, let’s just say it, predictable. While using the OG Calvin Klein blueprint makes sense on paper, it was missing the crucial component that everyone desires from fashion – fresh energy, unexpectedness, something weird. In short, a surprise. I recall the throat-clutching in the early 90s one season when Calvin showed a collection of soft, knee length skirts with flat shoes. Absolute filth! The outrage! This is kind of what we crave in fashion, to feel something, even if it’s disgust. But I suspect that wasn’t in the brief. (Hey, it didn’t work with Raf Simons. Critics loved it but the customer didn’t.)

Calvin Klein Collection SS25


I’m guessing CK’s owner PVH doesn’t really want modernity and newness. It wants a commercial, easy-to-understand product, but elevated. If that’s the case, then, yes, give us all the high V-neck sweaters, accompanying long, slender-legged pants and deconstructed trench coats. (Plus, the unexplainably sexy specs.) The “90s minimalist wardrobe staples” (as Net-a-Porter’s buyer described them to WWD) will sell, if marketed well. Veronica promised the NYT’s Vanessa Friedman “sexitude”, so let’s have some sophisticated sexiness a la 90s muse Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (but warmed up a few degrees) in the advertising and marketing, as that’s what’s missing with the current crop of androgyny-leaning minimalists.

If Phoebe Philo owns twisted kink, perhaps Calvin can deliver the original tactile sensuality for a new age in place of overdone boxy froideur. I mean, the dream team is assembled – with Jane How on styling, Guido on hair and Diane Kendal on make-up; I think there are enough ingredients to produce something with the essence of Old Calvin plus the shock of the new.
Calvin Klein Collection SS25

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Calvin Klein Collection SS25 / Highsnobiety
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here

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The Toscani effect



Benetton 1984

Farewell Oliviero Toscani, a brilliant photographer and art director who changed the world through his audacious activism dressed as fashion advertising.

I became aware of him in the 1980s via his vibrant fashion shoots for Benetton using groups of racially diverse, often street cast models in simple studio settings, styled in layers upon layers by (my old boss) Caroline Baker.

Caroline Baker Benetton campaign by Oliviero Toscani

But Oliviero Toscani is possibly best known for art directing visionary Benetton ad campaigns opening up discussion around controversial subjects such as AIDS, racial discrimination and religion by featuring provocative, non-fashion images of a kissing nun and priest, three raw hearts labelled ‘white’, ‘black’, ‘yellow’, and a man dying of AIDS in the arms of his family (below).

These campaigns, along with Benetton’s equally unflinching magazine Colors were part of Toscani’s tenure as Benetton art director (from 1982-2000), but more lastingly, cement his influence as a cultural provocateur 25 years later.

Oliviero Toscani Benetton ad campaign

Benetton hearts campaign art directed by Oliviero Toscani
Benetton campaign kissing nun by Oliviero Toscani

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Benetton; Caroline Baker (Benetton); Benetton x 3
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here

CLICK HERE to get Disneyrollergirl blog posts straight to your inbox once a week
CLICK HERE to buy my book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman
CLICK HERE to buy my beauty book, Face Values: The New Beauty Rituals and Skincare



Fear of God AW24



Fear of God AW24

90s Armani is on everybody’s mood board right now and I’m not too upset about it. At Fear of God it’s been given an oversized mid-2020s twist but that’s fine by me.

Although… if somebody (Fear of God, Arket, COS, or just… anyone) could please think of the short girls and create an oversize silhouette in ‘petite’ sizes, I’d buy the whole lot. Just a thought. (more…)



Zara is a designer brand now



Zara SRPLS ss24

Everyone’s talking about Rachel Tashjian’s Washington Post deep dive into the cult-like allure of Zara.

From its 1975 Spanish origins to its current position as global gateway to high end aesthetics, it’s certainly the brand of the moment for those who aspire to The Row, Bottega, Loewe et al on a non-luxury budget.

Tashjian spoke to a number of A-list fashion creatives who have worked with or are working with Zara. Think Fabien Baron, Narciso Rodriguez, photographer Craig McDean, hairstylist Guido and even Linda Evangelista, who modelled for Zara’s collaboration with Steven Meisel last autumn. (more…)