CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYC Spring 2019 Ready-to-Wear Collection

The Calvin Klein show began just like a movie. The red lights that greeted the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeff Goldblum, and the Houston Rockets’s James Harden on arrival faded to black, and three walls of the ground floor space of 205 West 39th Street crackled to life with an early scene from Jaws, the one where poor Chrissie Watkins goes swimming and doesn’t come out of the water. Film has been a touchstone for Raf Simons since he landed here two years ago. This time he did a deep dive, choosing Steven Spielberg’s 1975 man vs. nature masterpiece (and Hollywood’s first blockbuster), and the Mike Nichols classic of post-adolescent indecision, The Graduate, as reference points.

Simons called them “very important movies in my memory.” Explaining his attraction, he said, somewhat convolutedly, “Disasters happen but they turn again into beauty, and beauty is around us and it can oftentimes turn into disaster.” That’s complicated stuff. Indeed over the years, Jaws has been called a critique of capitalism, a post-Watergate parable, and “a ceremony for the restoration of ideological confidence” (America could certainly use some of that). But Simons’s allusions to both movies were quite literal. Jaws’s famous poster was stamped with the “cK” logo and printed on tanks and tees, the latest example of the merch trend that has swept across the upper echelons of fashion. Mortarboards were obvious references to The Graduate. They seemed more like mood setting than potential hot sellers, though the graduation gowns thrown over models’ shoulders looked compellingly chic. Tailoring is a Simons strong suit.

Rubber scuba gear was a through line from one film to the next (Richard Dreyfuss’s Hooper wears it to tussle with the Great White, and Dustin Hoffman’s Ben takes it for a dip in the family pool). It featured heavily here, especially on the guys, who wore the torsos peeled off, revealing striped sweaters or bare chests—exposed virility. Afterward Simons said he liked its S&M associations. On his female models, he put flattened, almost two-dimensional 1960s printed cocktail dresses or chunky knits accompanied by pleated skirts with shark-bite cut-outs on one side—vulnerability personified, just like Chrissie Watkins. Man-tailored blazers paired with Jaws/“cK” logo tees and wetsuit minis tempered the sweetness. Simons is steeped in the American vernacular. To make his Calvin Klein masterpiece, he’ll have to become his own auteur.