Francisco Costa's strong Fall message meant expectations were high today at Calvin Klein. The collection began with an all-white passage: a lean, chalky jacket, bodysuit, and high-waisted skirt; a shift with nothing to interrupt its lines from shoulder to shin but the model's narrow curves. Slowly working color in, Costa showed a short-sleeve leather jacket decorated in a barely traceable graphite pattern with slim, tapering pants and followed that look with a gray wrap dress softly draped at the back. A trio of long T-shirt dresses with seamless shoulders in pretty, vivid shades of blue and green stood out, but Costa seemed to prefer neutrals. A bias-cut backless halter gown that closed the show was a shade of buff that barely registered.
Here and there, a curving seam interrupted the spare, clean canvas of these clothes, as did the extra panels on the fronts of the dresses. It wasn't enough, however, to alleviate the quiet repetitiveness of the collection as a whole. Yes, it was minimalist in the style of old-school Calvin, but there was a whiff of Raf Simons' Jil Sander here, too. Now that Costa has proven he has original ideas, we expect something more inventive from him.
