On the coffee table at the Calvin Klein Collection showroom this season was a book celebrating Semina: a little-known mail-art magazine founded and published by Wallace Berman, a California counterculture artist known as the father of assemblage art, between the years 1955 and 1964. It set the stage for Francisco Costa s vibe-y Pre-Fall lineup of patchwork leather hip-slung flares, cropped and shrunken motorcycle jackets, and retro trenches. It s rare for Costa to tap so directly into another time period—he s usually much more circumspect in his influences—but it was refreshing to see the designer s wild side. There was something just this side of feral about a coat whipstitched together from leather, suede, and shearling sheared to different lengths. Squint and you saw shades of Mad Max: Fury Road. We won t be surprised if 2015’s Road Warrior remake sparks a trend for desert tones and raw, untreated skins on the Fall runways come February. If it does, it s safe to say that Costa got there first with this outing.
Of course, it wasn t entirely undomesticated. Costa recently launched a capsule eveningwear collection inspired by the red-carpet numbers he whips up for celebrities. There was plenty of polish to be found on the racks, too. Silk slipdresses were quintessential Calvin, as in tailor-made for the wilds of Manhattan.
