Calvin Klein has made his New York Fashion Week return — and he brought some friends with him!
The legendary designer, 82, made a rare appearance on Friday, Feb. 7 when he stepped out at Calvin Klein’s autumn/winter 2025 runway show at the brand’s New York headquarters, as the event marked the label’s first New York Fashion Week show since 2018.
Klein, who launched his namesake company in 1968 and eventually sold it in the early ’00s, rubbed shoulders with plenty of longtime collaborators, loved ones and friends while in attendance, as he posed for snaps alongside Anna Wintour, Kelly Rector, Christy Turlington and Kate Moss.
Of course, the supermodels are two of the brand’s ’90s muses, with Moss’ first career-launching campaign with the brand debuting in 1992 and Turlington, 56, being a longtime collaborator herself.
Also attending the Calvin Klein Collection presentation were Alexander Skarsgård, Nara Smith, Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner, the latter of whom walked the runway.
During the event, Klein kept things sleek as he wore a classic black suit jacket, white button-down shirt, black tie and black vest.
The outing comes less than two months after the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced that the Calvin Klein brand, and its new creative director Veronica Leoni, would be returning to New York Fashion Week for what it described as an “intimate showing” of men’s and women’s attire.
At the time, Eva Serrano, Calvin Klein Global Brand President, said that Leoni’s debut marked “a new era of innovation and creativity, embracing a fresh vision for the brand while honoring its iconic heritage.”
Speaking with Vogue about the NYFW return earlier this week, Serrano said that the runway is where “Calvin Klein belongs.” This week’s outing marked the brand’s first New York Fashion Week show in over six years, following its last in September 2018 when Raf Simons served as chief creative officer.
Leoni, an Italian designer who has worked for multiple brands and launched her Quira label in 2021, was “developing was very close” to the brand’s “DNA,” Serrano said. Leoni accepted the gig in May.
“For us, it’s very clear. The brand is about empowerment and confidence,” Serrano told Vogue. “What does that mean for the consumer now? We want a very consistent message across our product, store experience, marketing — connecting everything to our consumer. It sounds simple, but it’s not.”
With the brand’s latest show, Leoni told the outlet that she set out to present a “24/7 kind of wardrobe,” with tailoring specifically being her “high cup of tea, as it was Calvin’s cup of tea.” Serrano’s NYFW event also marked another Calvin Klein milestone, as it marked the first time the brand has been led by a woman.
“I don’t see it as a reintroduction, I see it as another building block,” Serrano said. “And we’ve built it by being very close with Veronica. We have worked days, nights, evenings, over calls, in meetings where we’ve spoken about, ‘What is Calvin Klein?’ and ‘How can she bring it to this current moment for our customer, both old and new?’”
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