“All these different people with different styles, different dress codes, it’s the future, the past, Art Deco, the city, the American West… it’s all of these things, and at the same time none of them. There’s no one era, one thing, one look. It’s the mixing of all these characters and individuals, exactly like America. It’s all the beauty and emotion of America.” It was with a 1985 David Bowie song “This Is Not America” that Raf Simons’ first runway for Calvin Klein closed. This first runway, taking place in a delicate political context, took its distance from Calvin Klein’s more emblematic streetwear style that made them famous for jeans and underwear.
Calvin Klein x Raf Simons came out on a runway with an installation from artist Sterling Ruby overhead and highlighted the United States’ formidable diversity. The models, men and women alike, played with cowboy and femme fatale looks, virile leather, delicate see-throughs, sportswear suits, and denim.
Raf Simons recently left the creative direction of Dior, but his couture inspirations remain. By mixing feathers with vinyl, fur, and other chic drapings, Calvin Klein’s pieces are brought to the next level and boast an admirable unity. The ensemble is composed around lines that are faultlessly rigorous: military shirts and officer pants, long pencil skirts, strict suits, timeless trench coats, or a classic head-to-toe denim look with reinterpretations of tailoring and the Wall Street suit in between… Raf Simons points his telescope towards the entire universe. With this work of transparency with PVC pieces, dressed up and mythified upon contact with feather embroideries and other fabric matches, the runway’s most desirable piece can be found in this streetwear dress with ribbed sleeves, intellectualized transparency, and silver embroidered roses.
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