In addition to a CV that includes stints at Jil Sander, Celine and Moncler, she most recently served as creative director of The Row, the cult New York brand founded by twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, whose £3000 blazers and £1900 shirts are catnip to Gwyneth Paltrow, Sienna Miller and Meghan Markle, and whose minimalist aesthetic came to define last year’s “quiet luxury” trend.
That The Row is always mentioned in the same breath as modern-day “quiet luxury” while Calvin Klein is never, neatly illustrates the brand’s most pressing issue. While the popularity of its underwear isn’t in doubt, the appeal of its clothing has waned. Calvin Klein epitomised “quiet luxury” decades before the trending term was even coined. In its 90s heyday, it was synonymous with the sort of simple slip dresses, fine gauge knits and triple-ply cashmere coats worn by a wealthy clientele who preferred understated luxury to brash logos. Unlike in recent years, it was also a red carpet staple during awards season. At the 1996 Academy Awards, Gwyneth Paltrow epitomised the label’s chic simplicity in a pale pink silk slip dress which Klein himself described as “a dress designed to show off the woman and not the designer.”
When Calvin Klein launched his label in 1968, few could have imagined that by 1969, his clothes would feature on the cover of American Vogue, or that he’d have grossed $1 million in his first year of business. It was the start of a rapid, aggressive ascent into fashion’s highest echelons. By swiftly expanding into sportswear, tailoring, underwear and accessories, Klein’s annual revenue grew to $30 million by 1977. In fashion terms, he shaped America’s design vernacular, pioneering a sporty, casual aesthetic that, alongside Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and later, Donna Karan, would come to define the American fashion industry for decades.