NEW YORK, Feb 16, 2003/ FW/ --- In the wake of 9/11, it was Calvin Klein who best seized on national sentiment when he chose the 60s song "What the world needs now is love, sweet love" for his advertising campaign.

And ironically, his show for Fall / Winter 2003 not only fell on Valentine's Day, but on the day when any semblance of an international coalition for a war with Iraq was nixed by Hans Blix at the United Nations.

In a day that slapped at Washington's bellicose policy, The French Foreign Minster, Dominique de Villepin, drew unheard of applause from pacifists and journalists when he said, "war is the sanction of failure."

The career of Calvin Klein, America's most famous designer, has been anything but a failure, and as he is now entering a new era following the acquisition of the label by Philip Van Heusen, the ironies could not be more pronounced.

When Calvin began, war protests were engulfing the White House with the chant "LBJ, LBJ, how many boys did you kill today?"

And by the time his show ended on Friday, massive anti-war protests were adopting the theme "Make Love, Not War".

On Saturday, marches broke out from the European capitals, to the streets of Manhattan.

Perhaps sensing the pessimistic climate, Calvin Klein's show was a work in understated elegance.

In an era that has seen P. Diddy trade in his gold chains for a Ralph Lauren suit, the designer really seems to have his pulse on the current zeitgeist, where extravagance and opulence have become passé.

The collection he showed of short dresses, sensuously wrapping models in chiffon, stayed largely in dark, solid colors with an occasional print fabric adding a highlight.

Some variations were strapless, others pleated, and still others were delicately sheer as if seemingly blown by the winds of time.

In the end, it was an exquisitely subdued affair that was no less seductive for the restraint.

Then again, that is the signature of America's master designer, the same one who made designer jeans a staple in the 80s, and then revolutionized underwear in the 90s when he put Marky Mark into boxer-briefs.

The collection was striking for its loveliness and its simplicity, and would that cupid's arrows could only replace the Tomahawk missiles bearing down on the world.