Calvin Klein, Leoni restores modern minimalism

The house of Calvin Klein returned to the runway, and its new designer Veronica Leoni restored the house with a punchy, modern minimalist collection that won an equally large cheer from the founder as from the audience on Friday in New York.

 
“I loved it. Fabulous and very Calvin,” enthused Klein as he embraced Leoni backstage.

Attired in a classic black suit with a black tie—more apt for a funeral than a fête—Klein sat front row at the show inside the company’s historic headquarters on West 39th Street, in the middle of the Garment District.

The show marked the first by the house of Calvin Klein since Raf Simons presented his final collection in the same space in 2018, though its style and sensibility leaped back to the early 2000s and Calvin Klein’s final collections for the brand.

The collection was entirely print-free, emphasizing clean lines and expensive, high-tech fabrics, all unveiled in a fast-paced show. Leoni worked in her skill as a creative cutter and innovative draper to take this collection somewhere new.

The style was polished, the mood that of a busy career woman—where Kendall Jenner wore studious reading glasses and a power herringbone greatcoat. Skirts cut right at the knee were paired with five-button jackets in marvelous, shiny nylon suits. The collection also had a suitable soupçon of suggestiveness—from a beautiful white silk tuxedo cut like a sexy evening faille coat dress to sultry silk slip dresses.

 
Rome-born Leoni arrived at the New York house with an impressive CV, having worked as head knitwear designer for Jil Sander herself to pre-collection head of Celine under Phoebe Philo. She also founded her own label, Quira, noted for its sculptural shapes and effortless nonchalance. Her influence continued at Calvin Klein in the almost molded trench coats for women and priestly garb for some men.
 
Minimalism, being a subtle art, meant the show lacked fireworks, but the collection still packed punch and panache. In a co-ed show, she dressed men in lapel-free oversized coats and voluminous trousers, just like her denim jeans—a fetish item for the house, always known for Brooke Shields’ immortal line: “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” An unimaginable thought, given these elephantine jeans.

The snappy show was driven by a great soundtrack from ace DJ Frédéric Sanchez, including the electro-urban blues of Confidence by Anything’s Possible—an apt title for this collection.
 
“I didn’t want to get too stuck in the past. I wanted to kind of cancel what happened between Calvin’s last day of work and my first day of work,” explained the feminine yet forceful Leoni post-show.
 
Banished from the runway were the sporty, architectural creations of Brazilian designer Francisco Costa, Calvin Klein’s immediate successor as creative director. Everything was light-years away from the maximalist Jaws movie poster T-shirts of Leoni’s predecessor, Belgium-raised Raf Simons.
 
Asked how she felt about being the first female creative director of Calvin Klein, Leoni replied, “I feel like King Kong today!”
 
The show comes at a tricky moment for the house, as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are part of PVH Corp., which has been placed on China’s Unreliable Entity List as a counterpunch to Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese goods.
 
“I don’t want to speak about that. All I want to say is what a great collection by Veronica, to bring us into a new era at Calvin Klein,” said Stefan Larsson, CEO of PVH.
 
At the finale, Leoni received a great burst of applause, led by two past superstar Calvin Klein models—Kate Moss and Christy Turlington—who joined the cheers alongside actors Greta Lee and Cooper Koch.

Though definitely not a slam-dunk homerun show, the collection felt like a hit—with enough editorial panache and cool elegance to please a wide audience. And, more relevantly, it elevated the brand while respecting its DNA. In a word, Calvin Klein—one of the half-dozen greatest fashion houses in American history—is back.