Calvin Klein’s Collection Comeback Continues

NEW YORK — The present day iteration of Calvin Klein is best known for three things: underwear, denim and marketing.

So far, the reintroduction of its higher-end Calvin Klein Collection line, which shuttered in 2017 to focus on the former two, has mostly been an exercise in the latter. Since creative director Veronica Leoni’s first show for the brand a year ago, Calvin Klein has managed to reenter the fashion conversation, becoming one of hottest tickets at New York Fashion Week. Last season’s show earned 75 percent of the share of voice online for the entirety of New York Fashion Week, according to Launchmetrics, likely driven in large part by its star-studded front row.

This season is likely to up that ante even further: The front row was mostly a mix of stars of talked-about TV shows, like Francois Arnaud from “Heated Rivalry,” Britt Lower of “Severance,” Louisa Jacobson from “The Gilded Age,” “Industry”’s Myha’la and recent campaign stars Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, who play toxic lovers on “Tell Me Lies,” and are also a couple in real life. There were also some big screen names, like Dakota Johnson, Lily Collins and, notably, Brooke Shields, the star of what is likely Calvin Klein’s best-remembered campaign.

Aligning with fan-favourite TV actors is a good way for a brand to earn a place in the zeitgeist. Calvin Klein is clearly adept there: Its 2024 campaign starring “The Bear”’s Jeremy Allen White was a massive marketing moment. Translating that buzz to commercial success is a different challenge.

It’s impossible to yet judge if Leoni’s take on the brand is selling — her debut collection, which was presented last February, only just hit stores last autumn; PVH doesn’t report fourth-quarter earnings until next month. In the third quarter of 2025, sales rose 3 percent, beating analyst expectations but still not yet a sign of major momentum. Critical response has been cautiously optimistic.

From her first collection, Leoni’s take has been rooted in the brand’s historic minimalism. But each season, she seems to push the boundaries of what that looks like: For Spring 2026, she incorporated fun details like fringed dresses and brighter hues of pink and green.

This time, she looked to Calvin Klein’s early days in the 1970s and 1980s, when the brand first raised eyebrows for its sexually-charged marketing. That influence There was a dress with a sweetheart neckline, where one side falls down, revealing a nude square of fabric — it would take a second look to realise it’s not actually a bare breast. There was underwear worn over a pair of leggings, and open backs that displayed the brand’s signature underwear bands — this time, emblazoned with the word Collection, too.

“There was a strong hedonistic elegance, vigour, a sophistication that seems to come from another time,” Leoni said following the show. “It was already extremely evident, the cult of the body … we wanted to push that … further in the collection.”

Beyond those bands, there were few subtle nods to the brand’s other big money maker — one look included denim, a Canadian tuxedo-style ensemble with a pair of jeans that are a reedition of the brand’s first pair that walked the runway in 1976, which Leoni found in the archive.

“We cannot live without the underwear. We cannot live without the denim,” she said. “We wanted to … try to celebrate the 50th anniversary as a real act of connection to the brand.” The most notable denim looks were arguably in the front row — Van Patten and White wore coordinating jean jackets and pants.

It’s worth wondering if — particularly to position the collection for commercial success — there isn’t more to be done to tie Collection to the products that most consumers know and love. The show overall leaned much more heavily on suiting, tailored dresses and coats in muted grays, whites, browns and blacks. There was some colour: a translucent-appearing red leather trench coats, a burgundy leather set, and a bright orange finale dress that billowed down the runway.

The brand’s next challenge will be getting Collection if not in the hands of the masses, than at least more people. There are moves on that front: A new 3,000 square foot flagship store opened in Manhattan’s Soho neighbourhood at the end of last year; so far, it’s focused exclusively on the brand’s mass-market offerings, primarily denim and underwear, but starting this spring, will begin selling key pieces from the Collection. It’s also available on the brand’s website, Net-a-Porter and MyTheresa.

Marketing, of course, will help in that regard. Its celebrity connections have been on display on the red carpet: It created a custom gown for best actress in a drama series winner Lower for the Emmy Awards last fall, and Kristen Stewart made headlines when she wore a pair of the brand’s long underwear to the IndieWire Honors Winter Film Awards at the end of last year. (Apple Martin wearing her mom Gwyneth Paltrow’s Calvin Klein black halter dress to the premiere of “Marty Supreme” in December was more of a happy accident, but an undeniable win.)

Its marketing muscle, too, remains strong — recent campaign stars include Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny, Vogue cover star Rosalía and Jackson White and Grace van Patten, the real-life couple that plays toxic lovers in Hulu’s buzzy series “Tell Me Lies.”

While the collection was inspired by the 1970s and 1980s, another era from the brand’s past is set for a revival of its own: Ryan Murphy’s Love Story series, focused on the doomed romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, who worked for Calvin Klein as a publicist in the 1990s, premiered on Hulu on Thursday. With just a few initial photos causing an uproar on social media, the show’s wardrobe is sure to be a hot topic on social media during its run.

With that in mind, it’s hard not to feel that for all the star power in the front row, Calvin Klein did miss out on what could have been one major moment: Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Bessette in the series, was no where to be found.