Calvin Klein, in New York the debut parade of the Italian Veronica Leoni

Six years after the last appearance in the New York Fashion Week calendar, Calvin Klein has finally returned to the catwalk. The brand, which since the 70s has redefined the aesthetic rules in America with sobriety and beyond, presented the autumn-winter 2025/26 collection under the new creative direction of Veronica Leoni for the line Calvin Klein Collection: higher expression of the brand, in the vision of the Roman designer is configured as a meeting between the celebration of his iconic minimalism and a deeper search for authenticity starting from the so -called female gaze.

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After all, the Roman designer could only distil the important creative experiences in his work during the years spent at Celine, Moncler, The Row and Jil Sander, as well as the direction of the brand founded by her, Quira. Born in 1984 and finalist of the LVMH 2023 award, Leoni in fact manages to instill freshness and vitality to the original soul of Calvin Klein, despite the grandeur of a tradition to carry on the shoulders: his debut collection could only sublimate him essential stylebut what could be perceived as a simple – albeit appreciated – tribute to the 90s translates into something different, reflecting on the value of the authenticity that the newspaper lives.

Calvin Klein Collection, the new creative director is Veronica Leoni

To the Italian designer a twofold and important role: not only to guide the creative direction of the PVH group brand, but also finally bring Calvin Klein back to the catwalk

The slender lines and the enveloping silhouettes give life to a harmonious dialogue with the female self-expression, through garments that embrace the complexity of those who wear them with particular attention to his desires, sex appeal included. For Leoni, the latter does not lie at all in the amount of skin exposed, but in the safety of those who live in his creations: in this perspective, the underwear emerges as a recurring theme, reinterpreted through Summer dresses and Serafino shirtswhose fluid lines gently cares the body and whisper a refined sensuality.

Courtesy of Calvin Klein Collection

Courtesy of Calvin Klein Collection

The selection of materials and palettes reflects this vision between soft wool and cashmere, but also more structured Twill and Gabardine, dyed in the neutral and timeless tones of the granite, porcelain and moon gray, and accompanied by more bold touches of Barolo, raspberry and citron clear. In every detail you can find archive quotes, from the CK One bottle transformed into clutch to the complete corpcore In a soft version, but the references to the imagination to which Veronica Leoni has always drawn, halfway between the Scandinavian elegance without effort and the Japanese modernism, are equally clear. Simplicity becomes a non -trivial but privileged personal expression, in an interpretation of the beauty that captures the essence of things: as Martin Heidegger stated The origin of the work of artwhat is beautiful can reconcile with the truth.

Courtesy of Calvin Klein Collection

Courtesy of Calvin Klein Collection

Monumental minimalism yes, but “expressed authentically”as the same creative director said, to grab what is often veiled by the complexity of everyday life. The involvement with the brand’s heritage is also represented both by the clothes on the catwalk and by the details they orbited around them, by the choice of restore the original font of Calvin Klein, elegantly exposed on invitations and notes of the Fashion Show, to that of parading at 205 of West 39th Street, the brand headquarters of the brand in the heart of the New York fashion district. Veronica Leoni’s debut for Calvin Klein Collection certainly represents a fascinating and significant transition, but also a Race anchoring without incurring the risk of mere emotional return. The momentum towards the future is and can be seen, but how it would be good to remember – especially given the dangerous speed with which the commercial departments make decisions in this historical moment – which is still soon a verdict.