Calvin Klein Collection likes its models like it likes its clothes: exclusive. So it was that on the final day of New York Fashion Week, after nearly 200 brands and designers had presented, shown or otherwise paraded their wares before all the editors, buyers and street style photographers in the city, Francisco Costa still managed to give the crowd something it hadnt already seen this season.
Make that someone we hadnt seen this seasonor about a dozen someones. The fashion brand boasted Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain on the front row and 11 exclusive models in its cast, including Carolyn Murphy, who first walked for Calvin 20 years ago.
What did they wear? Belted bandeau tops with cropped, wide-legged trousers. Navy coats with glossy, black-coated midsections. Subdued tartans. A black dress that shimmered with strands of jet beads. Tweed-printed dresses. Rather amazing round-toed, square-platform patent leather pumps.
After the show, designer Francisco Costa said he was inspired by the duality, the male-female thing in the 1962 Soviet film Ivans Childhood. Its so genius and inspiring, the way its shot, this love affair between a girl and this military man.
The architectural touches this season came from an innovative woven felt with precisely perforated spaces, to quote the show notes. In practice, this meant punched-out squares that brought a lightness to pleated wool skirts. Costa said it was achieved using a dropped needles technique the team developed, effectively taking the needles off the loom to create the desired voids.
They extended a similar effect to leather, with delicately gold-tipped edges on perforated sections in skirts and coats. It was as structured, clean and architectural as weve come to expect. Rest assured that Ms Chastain will remain extremely well dressed.
