Calvin Klein Opens Sterling Ruby–Designed Shop on Madison Avenue: Anonymous Shopper | Vogue

After snapping a pic, put your phone away. With your cell tucked inside your pocket, you’ll be better equipped to study the breadth of Simons’s work for the new Calvin Klein. On the first floor, the women’s collection is the star, with a nook of bags by the entry (go for the bucket bag at $1,795), shoes dotting the space, and the label’s new, much-talked-about suiting taking center stage. Will you be willing to shill out $875 for a cool but tiny Prince of Wales gilet? Perhaps not, but Calvin’s strict blazers (in the low four figures) and layering turtlenecks with 205 neatly embroidered on the collar ($295) are very hard to resist, regardless of price. Around the corner are racks of CALVINKLEIN205W39NYC-emblazoned white boy shorts ($34) and bralettes ($45), hung like heroes, for Raf-stans on a tighter budget. That’s what I’ll cop—a small emblem of my fandom. Next visit, I might scoop up a $250 denim midi skirt with Brooke Shields embossed on the tag. Wide-leg jeans are $495.

Go up one flight of black stairs, and you’ll find yourself in an accessories space, with women’s shoes, more bags, and jewelry. The crystal bracelets ($700) and bag straps ($2,450), available for preorder, fairly beam against their paint-splatter backdrops. Bottles of Obsessed, a new fragrance for men and women, are artfully arranged on Ruby-designed cushions. Up the stairs again is menswear; men’s suiting and shirting live here, as does a selection of found items that range from vintage American quilts to Italian vases to Rose Cabat “feelies,” organized into elegant groups. Maybe vintage treasures are not the most obvious way to refresh an American youth cult brand, but I appreciate the sense of experimentation. That sense permeates the space on the whole, aided by the scaffolding, as if to say, “We’re trying something new here, linger if you please.” And you’ll want to linger—so long, in fact, that the bed in the corner on the third floor, meant to show off linens, will start to look like the ideal place to lie down and contemplate what you want to purchase. No one has gotten into it to daydream—yet—but if I did, I’d likely have walked away with all-white, American flag duvet cover.