Calvin Klein -- Utterly Essential
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
NEW YORK, Sep 23, 2002/ FWD/ --- If there’s one thing that Calvin Klein knows how to do well,
it’s Calvin Klein.
Other designers might jump around from season to season inspired by a recent foreign voyage
or obscure movie, but not Calvin.
He sticks to what he does best, which is making cool, distinctive modern fashion.
No wonder his audience boasted so many celebrated ladies – a newly curly-haired Gwyneth
Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, Angela Bassett, James King, Fran Lebovitz and Tina Fey –
and well-heeled swells – Jennifer Creel, Anh Duong, Cornelia Guest, Ines Rivero and Amy Sacco.
For spring-summer 2003 Klein worked in a narrow range on the color spectrum.
It was all white, ecru, blonde, taupe, pewter, fennel, a dash of turquoise and just a
brief burst of black.
But if the hues were restrained, the ideas were abundant.
Calvin’s ability to take a seemingly simple item like camisole dress and imbue it with new
spirit by using thin vertical pleats or reinvent staples like cargo pants and wrap dresses
was particularly impressive.
He only showed two leather jackets but they will almost certainly prove to be the best
in New York this season: the first, a snug little jute-colored chemise jacket that any gal
would die to wear; the second, a blonde washed biker jacket in glove nappa worn on
newly-married Natalia Portnam, the Russian-born beauty who opened and closed the show,
staged on the top floor of Milk Studios in the Meatpacking District.
Klein’s always been great at surrounding himself with the just right people, like French
DJ Frederic Sanchez who kicked off the proceedings with a evocative yet-to-released cut
from Robots in Disguise, or downtown It-Girl Tabitha Simmons, who took her first turn
styling a Calvin collection.
“The collection is of course much larger. But I always try to edit things down to make
the message clear so that editors and all of you can really get what we are trying to say.
I think we did that pretty well today,” Klein said backstage, in between a battery of TV crews.
He never said a truer word.
Click here for more photos.
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