It’s a meeting of opposites for Calvin Klein 205W39NYC’s spring-summer 2019 collection. Raf Simons looks two classic American films, JAWS (1975) and The Graduate (1967) for inspiration. The landscape of America–literal, and psychological–inspires Calvin Klein,
says Simons. A journey through America leads, inevitably, to the edge of the landscape: the beach.
Simons continues, At the beach there is this incredible idea of beauty, but also a tension–between land and ocean, a feeling of two worlds meeting, maybe colliding. There’s a sense of the unexpected–and always, a temptation. For me, JAWS perfectly exemplifies these notions.
Showing a rebellious streak, Simons goes for a polar opposite subject for his second reference. The Belgian designer expresses, I’ve always been fascinated by the dress codes of different generations–of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons; how the changes between different generations of families reflect the changes of American society.
Simons adds, I love the movie The Graduate and the different family dynamics at play. Like the film, this collection explores taboos and temptations, shifts in culture and community, but ultimately, the overarching theme is love.