Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa took home the Designer of the Year award from the CFDA earlier this summer. That¿s a lot to live up to, but from the looks of his spring collection, no one put quite as much pressure on Costa as he did himself. Today, he second-guessed his way off his own forward-moving trajectory and seemed to wind up in the archives of Helmut Lang. Yes, there was a lightness to portions of this collection that recalled the work he began last year. But unlike those A-line tent dresses, the transparent fabrics he used today were shirred, pleated, tucked, and folded to the nth degree. In short, they were sorely lacking in simplicity.
A more streamlined grouping of sporty layered tank dresses, along with cropped jackets and skirts cut from tech-y fabric that resembled breathable athletic mesh had a bit more American ease. And it should be noted that the collection wasn¿t entirely without fabulous items. He put a great oversized black parka on Natalia Vodianova, who was back on his runway exclusively for the first time after giving birth to her second child this spring. Before starting work on next season, Costa will have to learn to trust his own proven instincts again.
