"Francisco Costa's Calvin Klein Collection was a meditation on form. Not the female form, but, rather, geometric shapes. Many of the pieces looked as if they were draped and pressed over cubes, so that the short sleeves of a dress or the side panels of a jacket retained their three-dimensional echoes. The process gave Costa's soft, luxurious fabrics an airy sort of volume that was reinforced by a strict, cool palette of white, nude, icy lavender, and polar blue. When the idea was worked subtly it produced some lovely pieces, notably a white strapless dress with intricate pleats and folds at the neckline that didn't ignore the female body underneath. Too often, though, form trumped function, and the clothes looked boxy and square—a look that's hard to pull off if you're not a curveless 16-year-old. Fall's Calvin collection showed Costa in better form: intellectual, yes, but not at the expense of sex appeal. This season, he didn't quite hit the mark."
We disagree somewhat with the style.com critique. First off, "sex appeal" as a criterion for a fashion line seems awfully pedestrian to us. Second, we give Francisco Costa a lot of credit for being innovative and pushing the envelope with this brand. He managed to strike a balance between the austere simplicity endemic to the CK brand and a playfulness and curiosity with these shapes and materials. The highly structured shapes and the finishing really work beautifully on some pieces. He's managed to take the simplicity that you expect from the CK brand and take it further than just clean tailoring and crisp design. We don't love every piece and we HATE the shoes but he's pushing the brand much more than Calvin Klein himself ever did. It's recognizable CK, but it's 21st Century CK.
Watch the video:
[Photos: Getty Images/Style.com]
No comments:
Post a Comment