Veronica Leoni reeled it in for fall 2026, presenting her most directional lineup for Calvin Klein Collection thus far.
The show was held inside The McCourt within The Shed at Hudson Yards and her rows of red folding chairs lining the runway were set up to resemble an intimate circle within the larger square space. It seemingly paralleled the label’s broader business. Calvin Klein Collection is designed to be the ultimate expression of the overarching American company, with designer-priced, luxury fashions — which are not sold at the brand’s new SoHo flagship but rather at global retail partners like Net-a-porter, Holt Renfrew, Printemps, Maxfield, Moda Operandi, Mytheresa and via its e-commerce — while its jeans, underwear and fragrances have much wider distribution and speak more to Calvin Klein’s global audience.
However, this season there was a more distinct connective thread between the legacy American brand and Leoni’s ideas of it. During a preview, the creative director’s mood boards were filled with Calvin Klein ad campaigns from the late ’70s and early ’80s — a nod to her looking back to the source’s pivotal years for fall.
“I wanted to start the season fighting the stereotypical perception we all have about Calvin, and I am possibly part of it as a child of the ’90s. As you start to dig a little bit more into the foundation of the brand, the roots of the brand, you just discovered this wonderful, amazing world,” she explained. “I wanted to train [my team and I] to this kind of beauty — this perfection and practice of elegance that he was doing so well at the time. It still looks so extremely relevant today.”
The big ideas that emerged from her archival dive included sharp minimalism mixed with an obsession with the body, resulting in long, slim tailoring with peek-a-boo backs that exposed the iconic Calvin Klein logo’s bras, or more prim midi tweed-front dresses with contrasting, slightly sheer backsides. The “strong sense of hedonism,” she said, continued with ’80s rolled-up wool jersey “muscle” T-shirts with skinny grosgrain striped tailored pants; funky, transparent leather trenchcoats, and sleeveless men’s power suits.
But there were also great propositions for those adverse to showing skin, as seen in heightened staples of lean neutral tailoring and outerwear for any occasion, like everyday leather bombers or sculptural topcoats with exaggerated “boy scout collars” in colorful shearling. Occasion wear of sturdy bonded satin dresses and the more artisanal takes on a slipdress in velvet or puffy, 3D floral decorated mesh played into this idea.
In addition, Leoni reintroduced and recreated the original Calvin Klein 1976 runway jean, and she should continue to explore that path rather than fall’s billowing, colorful dresses that took away from the collection’s overarching flex, sometimes literally, of restraint.
“We’re almost to the the 50th anniversary, so we wanted to re-edit the shape and reintroduce the logo to celebrate that moment of lifestyle. This was before Brooke Shields [1980 advertisement] and before Calvin Klein Jeans was in the air [in 1978]. It was a very intelligent and smart take from Mr. Klein, just to put this into collection,” Leoni said of the jean.
Shields, like many of the brand’s campaign stars including Blackpink’s Jennie and “Tell Me Lies” stars Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, were present at Friday’s show, bringing Leoni’s vision of past, present and future Calvin Klein to life.