Calvin Klein announced this week that Veronica Leoni would take over as creative director for their mainstream collection. Following Raf Simons’ abrupt departure in 2018, the mainline collection was temporarily shut down. Parent PVH’s desire to revive the high-end brand makes financial sense, but the corporation is not a luxury player and will need to strike a balance between Leoni’s creative vision and a commodity-based business.
Twenty years have passed since Calvin Klein sold PVH his label. One of the biggest names in American design, Mr. Klein was a master of iconography who turned everyday items like trousers and underwear into stylish categories with appeal to women everywhere. In addition to being a well-known marketing genius, he was also a tastemaker, adopting the idea that clothing should be reduced to its most basic form, function, and beauty while eschewing the frippery that drew in other designers and labels of the time. He also realized that attire reflected one’s mindset.
Klein’s retail idea was carried out by none other than British architect John Pawson, the master of minimalist interiors, when he established his Madison Avenue store. Very few designers have achieved the kind of notoriety that Mr. Klein has, with his name and the initials CK continuing to be emblazoned on some of the most well-known cultural items available today.
The minimalist king Mr. Klein made style simpler. Though his concepts were not entirely original—they included elements of Armani and then Prada—they introduced a fresh perspective that was relevant for the day. However, his “clean” clothing isn’t what people remember about him today—rather, the undergarments, jeans, and perfumes are what elevated the brand to the pinnacles of the market.
Even though Mr. Klein’s contemporaries, like Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld, and Ralph Lauren, were able to dominate the European markets with their runway shows, his boutique remained a must-visit for any fashionista visiting uptown Manhattan.
We now (ab nauseam) refer to Klein’s minimalist approach to fashion from the 1990s as quiet luxury, a category Ms. Leoni is well-acquainted with. However, it is also embraced and saturated by everyone from Loro Piana to Cos, just like everything else in fashion. Leoni has an exceptional track record when it comes to knowing aesthetic and style, having worked with Jil Sander, Celine, and The Row. According to PVH, Leoni will collaborate with Eva Serrano, global brand president of Calvin Klein. PVH is eager to steer clear of the mistakes made during the Simons period, when the brand’s values were too much distorted and its vision was too radical.
Calvin Klein’s retail portfolio will have to change if it is to begin offering high-end clothing when Leoni’s first mainstream collection debuts in 2025. It will be intriguing to observe how expensive and high-end it will be. Will the collection be produced alongside its present goods in the far east or in prestigious Italian factories? In a same vein, would its runway creations establish standalone stores or be merchandised with CK jeans and other licensed mid-market products? The latter appears riskier because PVH hasn’t been successful with a Calvin Klein mainline and would require a large investment in retail.
The problem with luxury is that, with the possible exception of the undergarments, high-end fashion consumers are unlikely to purchase at any of PVH’s portfolio businesses. Relaunching its mainline may not ensure that Calvin Klein will see a rapid increase in top-line revenue, even though the company may have found its advertising groove again after last year’s successful Jeremy Allen White commercials, which increased underwear sales by 30% in their first week of release. This is especially true of the brand’s current Pride campaign. Moreover, PVH is a very revenue-driven organization.
