Growing up on the coast of northern Italy, Italo Zucchelli identified Calvin Klein as the essence of American sportswear. Since becoming the house designer, he's fused the inherent athleticism of the label with his own instinctive strengths: tailoring and a feel for innovative fabrics. Today's show felt less like a synthesis of those elements and more of a culture clash.
The good news included a jacket-pants-and-tee outfit in sand tones that was as elegant as anything Zucchelli has ever designed, a broad-shouldered suit with a gray marbled fleck, and the cloudburst version that closed the show. Other looks, like the shiny, oversize chino shirts, suffered from a slew of strange proportions. Cutoff tops seemed intended to suggest a gridiron player's workout wear but instead called to mind the Hulk's castoffs.
The athletic theme also showed up in vertically and horizontally striped tops and pants that created the illusion of a single piece; they looked like they were waiting to be branded with a product, like a Formula One driver's coveralls. Zucchelli excels at exploring that sort of futuristic, man-as-automaton notion, but there was something literal about this take that felt less sophisticated than usual.
