Calvin Klein, Spring/summer 05

[Spidergirl]

I'm glad he decided to let colours enter his collection.

 

[Spike413]

I just looked at the whole collection......I hated it, I actually hated it. The dresses were boring and looked like shapeless sacs, the colors were way too schizophrenic, super-bold colors that no one would ever associate with CK and neutrals that were beyond bland.....I did not like this at all.

 

[gem]

I agree...seems pretty shapeless.

 

[stylegurrl]

My eyes hurt from looking at some of these clothes I don't like anything here. The dresses are shapeless, the colors too garish and the beige

 

[Nemova]

This is one of the most hideous gowns I've ever seen.

And here's another

 

[kimair]

Cathy Horyn of the New York Times said this was the best collection of the week:

All the Pretty Clothes. And Then, Calvin Klein.
By CATHY HORYN

Published: September 16, 2004

n Aug. 23, Francisco Costa, the women's designer at Calvin Klein, returned to New York from a week in Wyoming to finish his spring collection. His companion, a horse trainer named John De Stefano Jr., was in Saratoga for the summer racing season and, alone in the city, Mr. Costa began to chafe. He was not happy with the clothes. His first collection for Calvin Klein, shown in the fall of 2003, had drawn raves but the second had been a near disaster. Now, with the spring 2005 show only a few weeks away, Mr. Costa, a former protégé of Tom Ford's, felt he had much to prove.

Shortly after buying Calvin Klein, in 2003, Phillips-Van Heusen closed the house's sample-making rooms on West 39th Street and moved those operations to Italy, where the clothes were being produced under a license. That meant Mr. Costa had to travel more than 3,000 miles if he wanted to make a sample. Which, in the doldrums of August, when nearly all of Italy's factories are shut down, was not even a consideration.

So Mr. Costa, working alone with a New York tailor who sews for celebrities and other private clients, began to make some new clothes. The original inspiration for his collection had been Brancusi's primitive wood sculptures, but after seeing the hot springs at Yellowstone, which threw out surreal hues of green and blue, even orange, against the Western landscape, Mr. Costa returned wanting to capture that sense of natural wonder.

He went out and bought silk and viscose jersey in the garment center and had it dyed to match the colors he had photographed in Wyoming. Then he started pinning the fabrics on a model, blending and shaping the panels until he was satisfied with the spontaneous effect. The evening dresses he designed were simple, based on a trapeze, but to save them from looking flat and lifeless, he combined the viscose jersey with the silk.

He and the tailor then made some T-shirt dresses from the jersey. Again, the idea was simple, but in cutting the dresses in the shape of a banana, rather than straight, and layering the jersey, Mr. Costa gave them a sense of movement.

"They create a natural ruching by reacting to the curves of the body," he said.

Tuesday, on the strength of those reactive dresses and the sportswear he had already designed, Mr. Costa, 38, sent out the single best collection of the spring shows.

In a season of pretty collections that too often embodied the allure and personality of a beautiful but empty-headed woman, a creature who turns out to have nothing to say, Mr. Costa's was the voice that finally spoke. American fashion can be Ralph Lauren's wispy chiffons and witty saddle oxfords in pink and white mounted on high heels with anklets. And it can be Ralph Rucci's august couture silks. But sometimes it must be willing to drive toward a much deeper place in the American imagination.

Mr. Costa's seismic collection, which included loose knitted suede tops and transparent python jackets over rustic djellaba shirts and cropped linen trousers, gave new credibility to minimalism. In the hands of a modern-thinking designer, it, too, can be pretty. And whether executives at Phillips-Van Heusen know it or not, they have a secret weapon in Mr. Costa. Like Christopher Bailey, the designer at Burberry, he is a product of the Gucci boot camp. Those designers possess not only exceptionally high standards, drummed into them by Mr. Ford, but also a big-picture view of a luxury brand. If Calvin Klein is to avoid going the way of Perry Ellis — down market, in other words — it must keep its fashion culture.

 

[MulletProof]

Originally posted by oceanharlot@Sep 15 2004, 01:50 PM
*falls asleep*

[snapback]368173[/snapback]​

*joins*

 

[Meg]

love it. i love the shapes of some of the dresses aren't overly structured and tailored, they just flow-granted that looks better on slimmer people. The color block dresses are just AMAZING. Love this collection

 

[tiffany]

I didn't like it - the bland beige shades clashed with the brighter colours, and the shapelessness of the dresses was unappealing

 

[Spike413]

Originally posted by kimair@Sep 16 2004, 05:26 PM
Cathy Horyn of the New York Times said this was the best collection of the week:

[snapback]369682[/snapback]​

Is she for real?????

 

[jenimmacto]

i'm torn. on one hand, the dresses really look like modern dance costumes. on the other, i'm a minimalist kinda girl and can't wait for architectural fashion to return and kick unflattering tweeds and oversized nubby herringbones back to gramma's closet.

 

[scandinavianchic]

I hate it. Being skinny I would look ridiculous and shapeless in every single item.

 

[kimair]

Originally posted by Spike413@Sep 16 2004, 09:51 PM
Is she for real?????

[snapback]369818[/snapback]​

apparently so...here's more on the divided feelings regarding this show (from today's WWD

TWO SCHOOLS OF CALVIN: Rarely has a designer managed to polarize the critics to such a degree as has Francisco Costa, who presented his third women’s wear collection for Calvin Klein on Tuesday to sharply divided reviews. The extreme opinions Costa’s collection generated ranged from that of Cathy Horyn, who lavished a heaping nine paragraphs of praise upon the “seismic collection” that “gave new credibility to minimalism” (compared to three sentences for Ralph Lauren) in The New York Times on Thursday, to that of Robin Givhan, who wrote in The Washington Post the same day that Costa “stubbornly insists that sad-sack silhouettes somehow capture the label’s history of minimalist sophistication. For spring, Costa believes in slouchy dresses in gray jersey that are so unflattering that one wonders whether he has ever met a woman, let alone considered the female shape.”

Such a bipolar reaction from the press would leave any designer’s head spinning, but Costa said the one review most important to him — that of Calvin Klein himself — was entirely positive.

“I appreciate everyone’s comment, but at the end of the day, I have to walk down the runway, and if I don’t believe in the clothes, I can’t do that,” Costa said. “It’s my third collection. For me to be deeply upset or happy about a review is dangerous. I have to keep doing my job, and whether I please people or do not please people, that’s really not my problem. As long as I keep true to myself, I will be happy. There are very few people who you can rely on to have an honest eye and to believe their compliment or not. If you looked at every review, then you would stop working.”

Costa noted the retail reaction to his work has grown only stronger in his three seasons behind the label, adding that a dress from the cruise collection featured in Bergdorf Goodman’s windows recently resulted in 10 special orders.

“I do think it’s interesting that people have diversified opinions about the collection, because that’s what makes it exciting,” he said. “It would be sad if I had to do something mediocre just to make everyone happy….If people disagree with me, great, it will give me a chance to make them think differently.”

my opinion of the show would be more along the lines of Givhan's; this collection was not "minimalist sophistication," it was full of shapeless, bland clothes that most women cannot wear. It's great that Klein himself gave a positive review of the show, but the only opinion that matters is the consumer's. It will be interesting to see if this collection sells.

 

[iluvjeisa]

This collection is just pretentious and boring. Close to hideous.

 

[rayncloudx]

i like this: nothing else though, which is sad

 

[MaRtaB]

new clothes designed by Francisco Costa for CK are worst than last year I think.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

the one above seems like a stella mcartney knock off otherwise the only bits i liked were the 1st ones in neutral colours and bias cut

 

[mikeijames]

Originally posted by kimair@Sep 17 2004, 02:19 PM
apparently so...here's more on the divided feelings regarding this show (from today's WWD
my opinion of the show would be more along the lines of Givhan's; this collection was not "minimalist sophistication," it was full of shapeless, bland clothes that most women cannot wear. It's great that Klein himself gave a positive review of the show, but the only opinion that matters is the consumer's. It will be interesting to see if this collection sells.

[snapback]370405[/snapback]​

i think these clothes were terribly minimalist, modern, and elegant. i think the main problem most people have with this collection is not the actual clothes but the design philosphy. calvin klein is about understated minimalism. and i think costa is following the trend of sexy is not necessarily constricting....most of these pieces were very chic and timeless and could be worn by anyone. i bet it sells in droves.