Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, and Eckhaus Latta
You have to give Veronica Leoni credit for finally figuring out that Calvin Klein doesn’t have to be complicated. Her show on Friday was her fourth since becoming creative director in 2024, and it was pretty great, I thought. Leoni opened with a black turtleneck with a white hem that fell loosely over a white papery skirt that hit just below the knees. There were slim, hip-hugging pants with skinny belts and taut t-shirts, blazers and light blue jeans, and Julia Nobis in a black suit with a below-the-knee skirt, and a blue printed scarf escaping from the edge of her jacket. A long cream evening skirt with a white tee was the essence of Calvin minimalism.
From left: Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin KleinPhoto: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein
From top: Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin KleinPhoto: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein
Then my expectations were shook up by the Eckhaus Latta show a few hours later—or maybe I should say Mike Eckhaus and his California-based partner Zoe Latta reminded me that the best fashion always has a jolt of newness. I kind of knew while watching the Calvin show that for all of Leoni’s new-found rigor the collection didn’t really have an edge to it. Those stripped-back looks were too clean, too polished, and the lack of variety in the models prevented the show from having heart.
By contrast, Eckhaus Latta was all body and soul. It could well end up being the sexiest show of the New York spring collections, and Latta and Eckhaus got that feeling across without seeming to try. The best sex on a runway is really for your mind; god knows we don’t want to see it done literally, with leather harnesses and thongs. The Eckhaus designers stuck to slim pants and jeans in a variety of washes and cuts, including a great style that sort of dripped off the hips and looked amazing with their new double-layered, clingy tank tops (fuchsia, say, mixed with sheer black).
From left: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
From top: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
The designers did the same thing with mini tank dress. And some of the models wore thin metal cuffs high on both arms. Martin Margiela used to do that, too, back in the nineties.
From left: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
From top: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
I’ve been loving the edge and sophistication of Eckhaus Latta for the past few seasons. This time, they stepped out a bit more with crocheted pants that looked like enlarged fishnet—wonderfully weird and beautiful in golden yarn on the guys—and with spare, fluttery shifts in chiffon layers.
From left: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
From top: Photo: Madison VoelkelPhoto: Madison Voelkel
But everything had a knowing sexiness, in fact, the same cool I saw the moment I left their downtown show space on Friday night and got back on the subway, on people. Eckhaus and Latta also presented about a dozen looks from their terrific collaboration with J. Crew, which comes out this Tuesday. The looks are disdainfully, confusingly preppy. They’ll probably sell like hotcakes.
Backstage
Photo: Cathy Horyn
Calvin Klein could afford to have a little of what Eckhaus has, especially its unfiltered cool. Mike Eckhaus says their direct sales have doubled in the past year. Maybe he and Latta should be designing Calvin. What a head trip.
Ireland, by Maria McManus From left: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
Ireland, by Maria McManus From top: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
Maria McManus, a Dublin native who showed her first collection in 2020, unfailingly attracts interest because of the personal layers she puts into her clothes. Her work just doesn’t resemble anyone else’s. This summer, she and her husband and two daughters took a car trip around Ireland, mostly on the more rural west coast, and that, in part, influenced the naive quality of her new collection, notably a two-piece dress in white cotton with delicate detailing, and masculine shirts with sober, crisp collars.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
Her other inspiration, though, were the novels and vibrant personality of Edna O’Brien, who died a few years ago. Anyone who thinks of O’Brien and her great coming-of-age novel, “The Country Girls,” has my vote. That led McManus to design, for example, a straight-line skirt in silvery crushed sequins, a romantic but simple sack dress in black silk with embellished straps that swept down a partially open back, a rather tough looking but lightweight bomber in black recycled leather, and a lovely sarong skirt in fuchsia silk with a warm brown scarf panel that looks like a block print.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Courtesy of Maria McManus
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Cathy Horyn
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Maria McManusPhoto: Cathy Horyn
McManus layered it over black pants and finished the look with a deep raspberry knit tank top. The dream expression of a young woman who lands in Dublin. But it’s also an image that sets McManus apart in New York City.
Though Michael Kors presented a very likable collection (in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art) of sharp and often brightly colored styles with a vaguely sixties edge, I didn’t find myself moved, as I was for his recent anniversary show at the Metropolitan Opera. I did love the punch of a deep brown blazer with white slacks and a French blue shirt, and also the summery vibe of a blue striped cotton shirt over a mini. But I just wanted Kors to break out of his formula, because he can.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway / Courtesy of Michael Kors