Just when you thought the new Raf Simons-led Calvin Klein couldn’t get any cooler. Two weeks after a standout debut show at New York fashion week, the house announced the hire of beloved British fashion scene stalwart Luella Bartley as head of global design for Calvin Klein Jeans, the accessibly priced and denim-led part of the brand.
Bartley, along with Katie Hillier, is half of the cult Hillier Bartley label. But both Bartley and Hillier have a formidable track record bringing their London cool to more commercial brands: while Hillier has collaborated on accessories with everyone from Marc Jacobs and Joseph to Victoria Beckham to Asprey, Bartley is credited with the Gisele bag, which was a smash hit for Mulberry, and at Marc for Marc Jacobs designed an influential motocross-themed collection.
There is synergy between Bartley and Simons. They have the same esoteric field of reference, from David Bowie and street art to Lucian Freud and skate culture, and the same avant-garde approach to gender. (Simons pioneered gender-fluid collections; Hillier Bartley makes womenswear with an aesthetic drawn from menswear.) Calvin Klein Jeans is a brand that sells in malls all over America, so the hire of a British designer who has a track record of doing her own thing – for four years when her children were young, Bartley lived in Cornwall and almost opted out of fashion – is another sign that Calvin Klein will be very different under Raf Simons.
In a statement welcoming the “globally acclaimed fashion designer”, Calvin Klein set out its mission as “a global lifestyle brand that exemplifies bold, progressive ideals and a seductive, and often minimal aesthetic. We seek to thrill and inspire our audience while using provocative imagery and striking designs to ignite the senses.”
