After a week of in-your-face colors and dizzying prints, Francisco Costa served up a palette cleanser for Spring. Of course, the Calvin Klein womenswear creative director has never really gone in for over-the-top anything, so the collection s subtle shades of nude, pale yellow, silver, and black weren t exactly a surprise. What was new was the softness and the femininity. Occasionally in the past, Costa s minimalism has erred on the conceptual side. He s been slowly moving away from the sculptural constructions that used to define his work, but he said good-bye to them for good this season.
In their place were slipdresses that by their very definition had a real sense of the body. Curving seams on the rear end highlighted its round form; pleats tapering to a point near the tailbone served the same purpose. Many of the silk frocks had sheer details at the bodice or were made of such gossamer-light stuff that the models underpinnings were visible. Lingerie being such a big part of the CK empire, it felt—deliberately or not—like a smart synergy between brands: Put more celebrities in dresses with bras peeking through—Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Ashley Greene, and Chloë Moretz were all sitting front-row—and sell more Calvin Klein Underwear.
The delicate look of the slips extended to the tailoring: Jackets had portrait necklines, and pants were cut so wide and cropped so high that from certain angles they looked like full skirts. For a long time now, Costa has practiced one half of the Calvin Klein brand DNA, minimalism; this season he nailed the sensuous part of the house code, too.
