December, 22nd, 2018

RIFFRAFF
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Part 2
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I was one of the few who consistently called the collections aesthetically not CK-DNA. Sales AND creative affinités did not bond. Raf’s palette passes Klein’s. He may be Belgian, predominantly influenced by european culture, yet his outsider approach to such an iconic american brand was, in my opinion, perhaps more americana-abstract than any other American-born designer. Let’s be frank: #CK wasn’t even being considered in the couture high fashion until Raf pulled up. Stil CK is no way .. #JilSander or .. #Dior. On the other hand, was Raf Simons $ucce$$ful at CK? No. There was a building shift in audience that happened when he took the reins knowing that CK needed time to settle: it WAS being REBRANDED so it was (not so) obvious (for the CK execs who hired him that) it wont make as much money as it did before, because it WILL STILL BE IN TRANSITION PHASE. Raf knew true rebranding, not the Gucci one, was good for CK especially if the brand has been unsuccessful for so long meaning a change of audience and aesthetic and that’s what Raf was doing but it needed time, time CK did not have. A revamp of this magnitude with an art direction have costed CK a lot so early on and they weren’t expecting it so in the end, that “experiment“ was a big waste of big money for a not-maybe not so big mismatch.
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#ALESSANDROBERGA | L’ÉDITOR
#NEWYORK #MODEDIPLOMATIQUE (at CALVIN KLEIN)
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