Growing up on the coast of northern Italy, Italo Zucchelli identified Calvin Klein as the essence of American sportswear. Since becoming the house designer, he s fused the inherent athleticism of the label with his own instinctive strengths: tailoring and a feel for innovative fabrics. Today s show felt less like a synthesis of those elements and more of a culture clash.
The good news included a jacket-pants-and-tee outfit in sand tones that was as elegant as anything Zucchelli has ever designed, a broad-shouldered suit with a gray marbled fleck, and the cloudburst version that closed the show. Other looks, like the shiny, oversize chino shirts, suffered from a slew of strange proportions. Cutoff tops seemed intended to suggest a gridiron player s workout wear but instead called to mind the Hulk s castoffs.
The athletic theme also showed up in vertically and horizontally striped tops and pants that created the illusion of a single piece; they looked like they were waiting to be branded with a product, like a Formula One driver s coveralls. Zucchelli excels at exploring that sort of futuristic, man-as-automaton notion, but there was something literal about this take that felt less sophisticated than usual.
