It’s not just Raf Simons who’s out at Calvin Klein, it’s the entire runway line he oversaw.
When Calvin Klein Inc. parted ways with Raf Simons, the brand’s chief creative officer up until December, the company said it would re-launch its collection business — the high-end 205W35NYC line Simons presented during fashion week in New York — under a new name and creative approach.
The American fashion brand has now announced that it is shutting its luxury collections business. It will instead focus on its existing categories, including denim, underwear and fragrance.
It has not yet been decided if it will have a presence at New York fashion week in September. A source said that the brand “wasn’t walking away from aspirational product, but looking at it through a different lens”.
The decision to terminate a luxury line entirely, as well as close its New York store, will reportedly result in 100 redundancies across New York and Milan. There are also plans to close its Milan office.
Even though the brand will no longer produce a runway collection, Calvin Klein still plans to include some level of aspirational product. That will fall under a new fashion/design director who would lead design efforts for all product categories.
Only time will tell how these efforts will play out in the long run.
