Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli Exiting Calvin Klein

[maxlinden]

Corporate is at it again.I guess CK was a piece of the new pie going around too.

 

[anlabe32]

I liked what Costa did in 2008-2010. After that he had a few hits but mostly misses in my opinion. Still, he's talented and I wish him the best.

I really want to see what Raf would do at Calvin.

 

[ogepma]

This is such a shame. Despite the fact his last couple of collections were rather chaotic, his latest one was really good. Francisco is a very talented designer and I hope he'd go somewhere better from here. Perhaps he can go to Jil Sander or revive Gianfranco Ferre? I think Raf would be a natural choice to take over however, with the way things have been going I wouldn't be shocked one bit if this it goes to Hedi, or even Kanye West.

 

[haydn]

Although this would be perfect for Hedi, I don't see their business model working for him. He operates with control over all aspects of a brand - he was responsible for Dior and YSL buying back all the licensed products - the cheap "Dior Monsiuer" and "Yves Saint Laurent" suiting, shirts and ties you would see at Nordstrom Rack and Macys. Calvin Klein is a 10 billion dollar brand and the majority of that is licenses. They did buy back the jeans and underwear in 2013, but you can still get a "CK" anything, pretty much anywhere in the world, from towels to furniture to cheap handbags to the countless diffusion lines in mid-level department stores. Hedi doesn't do "cheap" and I can't see execs giving up that volume in sales to keep him happy.

I think Raf would be happy enough designing "collection" and jeans if they keep that structure, although I have a feeling there is more change in store for the brand. I think they'd likely consolidate a number of lines into to simplify things.

One thing is for sure though - gone are the days of $50 CK denim in department stores. Hedi has made a name for himself in denim, and Raf's made a name for himself in streetwear recently.

 

[disco54]

Although this would be perfect for Hedi, I don't see their business model working for him. He operates with control over all aspects of a brand - he was responsible for Dior and YSL buying back all the licensed products - the cheap "Dior Monsiuer" and "Yves Saint Laurent" suiting, shirts and ties you would see at Nordstrom Rack and Macys. Calvin Klein is a 10 billion dollar brand and the majority of that is licenses. They did buy back the jeans and underwear in 2013, but you can still get a "CK" anything, pretty much anywhere in the world, from towels to furniture to cheap handbags to the countless diffusion lines in mid-level department stores. Hedi doesn't do "cheap" and I can't see execs giving up that volume in sales to keep him happy.

I think Raf would be happy enough designing "collection" and jeans if they keep that structure, although I have a feeling there is more change in store for the brand. I think they'd likely consolidate a number of lines into to simplify things.

One thing is for sure though - gone are the days of $50 CK denim in department stores. Hedi has made a name for himself in denim, and Raf's made a name for himself in streetwear recently.

Since when was Dior influencing streetwear ?
I am no fan of Hedi Slimane but I will give him credit where its due. He is faaaar more influential in fashion in general than Raf Simons, not just denim.

 

[anlabe32]

Since when was Dior influencing streetwear ?

Well first of all I think haydn was talking about the Raf Simons brand, not Dior.

And secondly, I do think Dior was influencing streetstyle, especially with shoes and bags. You saw them on every blog.

 

[Fashionstuff]

Well first of all I think haydn was talking about the Raf Simons brand, not Dior.

And secondly, I do think Dior was influencing streetstyle, especially with shoes and bags. You saw them on every blog.

Agree.
In the bloggers era many brands started to be a streetstyle- i use to call it chic streetwear

 

[softgrey]

nytimes

Changes at Calvin Klein Could Redefine American Fashion
Vanessa Friedman
ON THE RUNWAY APRIL 20, 2016

American fashion may be about to experience its biggest redefinition in decades.

On Tuesday, in yet another example of the upheaval in the fashion world (Hedi out at YSL! Dior still without a designer! Men’s wear in turmoil!) Calvin Klein announced that its men’s and women’s wear creative directors of more than a decade, Italo Zucchelli and Francisco Costa, were leaving the company, to facilitate a “new global creative strategy.”

Both lines, as well as all the other categories of the business — presumably including jeans, underwear, fragrance and others — would be united under one “vision,” with said visionary to be named “in due course.”

The company declined to say what that course would be, though it did say that the men’s collection in June and the women’s in September would be done by the in-house creative team, and that they would not be shown on the runway.

The Calvin reorganization had been rumored since the end of last year, along with the now-much-repeated-as-fact speculation that Raf Simons, the former artistic director of Dior, was in line for the job.

Mr. Simons, not surprisingly, did not return emails for comment. He was traveling, and, in any case, he has a noncompete with Dior that extends through the summer.

Whether or not he gets the job, however, the news creates the potential for Calvin Klein, a brand that has largely stepped back from the fashion conversation since its founder sold the company to the current owner PVH in 2003 and retired, to start shaping the industry again. Indeed, it’s not exaggerating to say that if the fashion house picks the right person for the job (and Mr. Simons is a good idea) and supports that person, it could radically redesign New York fashion.

Someone needs to.

After all, since the 1980s advent of the Big Three (Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan), the designers that burst onto the international stage and made sportswear a global phenomenon, American fashion has stayed pretty much the same.

As those brands have matured and gradually lost their stranglehold on the national aesthetic, however, whether through retirement (Ms. Karan) or simple repetition, other names have not risen to take their place. The next generation — Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Michael Kors — got distracted by jobs in Europe, and then globalization. The group after that (Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Altuzarra), though artistically adventurous, is still too small to have much global impact.

But with sales of $8.2 billion in 2015, Calvin Klein could.

That it has not thus far is a function largely of the fact that PVH, which also owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Izod, Warner’s and Speedo, has clearly been more focused on the broad appeal and financial possibilities of the accessible end of the market. Even though Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli were generally applauded for their collections, with Mr. Costa twice winning the CFDA women’s wear designer of the year award and Mr. Zucchelli’s winning men’s wear once, they were siloed and had little impact on the broader Calvin business.

There was the sense that the clothes appeared on the catwalk and were rarely seen again. The red-carpet business — and Mr. Costa usually snagged one to two big names per awards show, the most recent being Saoirse Ronan at the Oscars in a bottle-green sequined slip dress — seemed to have little relation to the more intriguing runway.

Indeed, sales of men’s and women’s collections combined accounted for less than 5 percent of the label’s total business. Three years ago, I did a video interview with Tom Murry, then chief executive, for The Financial Times, and he told me, on camera, that the collection lines were classified as a “marketing expense” on the balance sheet. The better to sell perfume, you know.

Ask anyone what Calvin Klein ads they remembered and odds are they would name the Justin Bieber/Kendall Jenner jeans campaign. Collection? Huh? What’s that?

Opportunity: To fill the hole in New York fashion and make an aesthetic statement strong enough, coherent enough and loud enough to echo not only through the city but also beyond.

If Calvin Klein does so, it will signal a real break not only from the last 12 years, but from anything PVH has done.

It’s probably not an accident that this decision to change the creative structure of the company coincided with the advent of a new chief executive. In 2014, Steve Shiffman, the former president of the brand, took the helm from Mr. Murry. New leadership is a chance for new beginnings, especially if Mr. Shiffman finds a design partner whose ambitions go beyond simply the stated desire to increase global retail sales to $10 billion to making a broader aesthetic statement about how we live now.

For all of our sakes, I hope he does.

In the meantime, the talented Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli are back on the job market. Someone should snap them up soon.

i love love love this article...
i would love for calvin klein to be relevant again...
and- most of all- i would love for it to embody that new york elegance that it once did...
with that in mind...
i would really love to see the job of creative director go to an American, New York-based designer...


though i wouldn't hate raf simons, i've never seen the ease in his garments that calvin always had...
*and donna and ralph, too, for that matter...
that is the defining quality of american sportwear...EASE...

you know who could do it>?
the twins...
...



the row already looks like a 90's CK ripoff...

 

[softgrey]

Once again, I think most people are confusing "sexuality" and "sensuality" with a certain kind of sexy à la Dolce & Gabbana circa 2003.

The entirety of the Calvin Klein brand image IS sexuality and sensuality. There is probably no other brand so intrinsically linked with sex appeal. And yes - it's true - most of the clothes that Klein himself designed - or Costa's earlier work, for that matter - were never raunchy, but it was worn by and made for sensual, mature, adults...much like original Helmut Lang.

Raf has produced more sensual collections, but that seems long ago in his earlier days at Jil Sander...but his work for the last 5 or so years seems to be completely neutered and his preferred vision of a woman is that of a 14-year-old girl model.

yeah- definitely neutered...
i get the feeling it's designed for robots or giant fashion dolls...
not actual flesh-and-blood humans...
there is no soul in his designs for women...

 

[haydn]

There is an article on Business Of Fashion this morning with Hedi Slimane discussing his photographic online diary. They don't discuss fashion at all, however they did drop this,

"California has been a source of intense pleasure and inspiration for Slimane, and his home for eight years, but his eye is moving east again. He’s about to become bicoastal, moving into a new home in New York, and is looking forward to exploring the city thoroughly for the first time since the late '90s.

“I possibly really will rediscover it,” he says. “I used to spend so much time there in the late '80s and early '90s, which was such a great period in New York. I haven’t been spending enough time to really document it for decades, so maybe I’ll do more things in New York. I don’t see the point in me having a place there if I don’t do anything with it — I have to transform it into something creative. I have a little studio — a portrait studio.”

Source - Business Of Fashion.

 

[Fashionstuff]

There is an article on Business Of Fashion this morning with Hedi Slimane discussing his photographic online diary. They don't discuss fashion at all, however they did drop this,

"California has been a source of intense pleasure and inspiration for Slimane, and his home for eight years, but his eye is moving east again. He’s about to become bicoastal, moving into a new home in New York, and is looking forward to exploring the city thoroughly for the first time since the late '90s.

“I possibly really will rediscover it,” he says. “I used to spend so much time there in the late '80s and early '90s, which was such a great period in New York. I haven’t been spending enough time to really document it for decades, so maybe I’ll do more things in New York. I don’t see the point in me having a place there if I don’t do anything with it — I have to transform it into something creative. I have a little studio — a portrait studio.”

Source - Business Of Fashion.

It could be also if he goes to CK

 

[mikose]

There is an article on Business Of Fashion this morning with Hedi Slimane discussing his photographic online diary. They don't discuss fashion at all, however they did drop this,

"California has been a source of intense pleasure and inspiration for Slimane, and his home for eight years, but his eye is moving east again. He’s about to become bicoastal, moving into a new home in New York, and is looking forward to exploring the city thoroughly for the first time since the late '90s.

“I possibly really will rediscover it,” he says. “I used to spend so much time there in the late '80s and early '90s, which was such a great period in New York. I haven’t been spending enough time to really document it for decades, so maybe I’ll do more things in New York. I don’t see the point in me having a place there if I don’t do anything with it — I have to transform it into something creative. I have a little studio — a portrait studio.”

Source - Business Of Fashion.

I never like his saint laurent desgin.But his street casual style will bring a life to CK once again.