Khaite

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
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On quiet beauty, Prada make-up 2.0 and the end of the glossy girl boss era



Australian Vogue Beauty Garconne

How cool to be quoted in Noelle Faulkner’s article for Vogue Australia on the emerging anti-perfect aesthetic.

In her piece, ‘The Whole Picture’ (in the August issue), she charts the convergence of discreet fashion and beauty, particularly the growing shift away from obvious enhancements in pursuit of so-called perfection (pillow cheeks, snatched jawlines, uber-pumped lips) and towards a more self-accepting, everyday aesthetic. (more…)



The art of fashion in the Instagram age



Khaite store SoHo

There’s definitely a synergy between a certain type of upscale American designer and stores that think they’re art galleries. We’ve seen it from The Row, we saw it (briefly) from Raf-era Calvin Klein, and now it’s the turn of Khaite, whose first store opened last week in SoHo.

Think minimalist concrete walls, even minimalist-er merchandising (a lone dress on a rail), contemporary art touches and a general air of austere intimidation. Reader, I love it. (more…)



In case you missed it – 2022 edition



Miu Miu chinos ss22

While newsletters may be the new blogs, I still have a solid reader base and for that I thank the regulars who revisit and even subscribe. You know who you are! (Reminder: you can subscribe here to receive my weekly blog digest.) But in case you missed any, here are a few of my favourite posts from 2022…

The trend round-ups are always popular. 2022 was the year of Miu Miu chinos, designer water bottle holders, Mary Jane shoes and Khaite everything. Revisit the reports here and here. (This month I also chimed in on the Miu Miu micro-mini craze for BBC Culture.) (more…)