Calvin Klein in 2016 was a $3.1 billion business generating $8 billion in global branded sales — healthy by most measures, with a dominant position in underwear, denim, and fragrance. But its parent company PVH had watched competitors like Gucci explode after radical creative overhauls, and saw an opportunity to do the same: reunify all of Calvin Klein's creative output under a single visionary and elevate the brand's cultural standing globally.
The vehicle for that ambition was Raf Simons — coming off a celebrated tenure at Christian Dior, widely regarded as one of the most intellectually rigorous designers working in fashion. In August 2016, he was named Calvin Klein's first-ever Chief Creative Officer, with complete creative authority over every brand category, from $20 briefs sold at Macy's to made-to-measure gowns crafted in the company's Midtown Manhattan atelier.
My role was to build and lead the communications strategy that made this transformation legible — to the press, to consumers, to the industry, to retail partners, and to the internal organization simultaneously navigating one of the most significant transitions in its history. That last dimension was foundational: I had built Calvin Klein's first-ever dedicated internal communications function from scratch, giving the organization a coherent internal voice for the first time. Without that function already operational, the Simons transition would have had no reliable mechanism for holding the organization together while the external transformation played out.
"The news of his appointment alone injected some much-needed life into New York Fashion Week practically as soon as it broke." — Vogue
Before Simons could make his first collection, the announcement itself had to be managed with precision. In April 2016, Calvin Klein announced the departure of Francisco Costa (women's) and Italo Zucchelli (men's), the two creative directors who had held the brand's design identity for over a decade. Managing those departures with care and dignity — while building anticipation for what was coming — required communications discipline at every level. When Simons was confirmed in August, my work was to architect the global press announcement, develop the narrative positioning that framed this as evolution rather than disruption, and brief media internationally in a way that honored the brand's past while generating genuine excitement about its future.
Simons arrived with a total mandate: new logo (designed with Peter Saville), new brand name (Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, referencing the corporate HQ address on West 39th Street), new showrooms in New York and Paris redesigned by artist Sterling Ruby, and a new set of creative collaborators — including Ruby and the Andy Warhol Foundation — that signaled a fundamentally different brand aesthetic. My work during this period was two-directional: externally, managing the drip of news and narrative around these changes in a way that built coherent anticipation for the February runway debut; internally, aligning the communications organization around the new brand vision and ensuring every touchpoint was consistent with what Simons was building.
Simons' first major public act as CCO was a masterclass in communications strategy: a surprise social drop of Calvin Klein By Appointment 1-14 — a 14-look made-to-measure collection released with no advance warning, shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo, starring Millie Bobby Brown and others, each look juxtaposed against a pair of classic white briefs. The brand's celebrity-only atelier was being opened to the public for the first time; the briefs-beside-couture juxtaposition declared that Calvin Klein was about far more than its waistband. I led the communications strategy — the media briefing, the press narrative, the talent coordination, and the retail and trade communications that contextualized this new pillar for buyers and industry partners.
Raf Simons' Calvin Klein debut at 205 West 39th Street — the brand's own headquarters, a deliberate choice — was the defining communications moment of New York Fashion Week that season. Vogue noted the announcement alone had injected new life into NYFW. Kaia Gerber made her runway debut. The front row included Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Millie Bobby Brown. The collection — American quilts, denim, plastic coats, steel-toed western boots, staged inside a Sterling Ruby installation — was praised across fashion press from WWD to Vogue to The Cut. Managing the press strategy around this moment was among the highest-profile communications work of my career.
Simons' first advertising campaign — "American Classics" — placed Calvin Klein's signature white briefs and dark denim in conversation with works by Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Sterling Ruby, and Dan Flavin. Shot by Vanderperre, it was critically celebrated as one of the most intellectually rigorous fashion advertising campaigns in recent memory. My communications challenge was a dual-audience press strategy: fashion and culture press engaging with the artistic ambition, consumer and retail media understanding this as an evolution of the brand they already knew, not a departure from it.
On April 1, 2017, the Calvin Klein By Appointment atelier opened its doors to the public — the first time private clients beyond the celebrity and VIP tier could book made-to-measure appointments directly with the brand. The communications strategy positioned it as the democratization of something previously inaccessible. The validation came swiftly: one month later, both Julianne Moore and Gwyneth Paltrow wore Calvin Klein By Appointment to the Met Gala — fashion's highest-profile red carpet moment — a placement that was the result of deliberate celebrity communications strategy built over the preceding months, not happenstance.
At the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards, Raf Simons won both Womenswear and Menswear Designer of the Year — a rare double recognition, and a formal validation from the American fashion industry of the creative transformation underway at Calvin Klein. The communications work extended the reinvention narrative into a new register: an American institution honoring a European visionary for making an American brand urgent again. Simons won Womenswear again at the 2018 CFDAs.
The second 205W39NYC runway show deepened the creative vision established in February. Warhol Foundation-provided prints appeared across tees, denim, and full looks. Sterling Ruby's ceiling installations — suspended axes and brightly colored pompoms — brought the "American horror and beauty" theme to life in the physical show environment. The show reinforced that the Simons era at Calvin Klein was not a one-season moment but a sustained, coherent creative and cultural program. My communications work for this collection built on the relationships and press infrastructure established around the debut, while developing the brand's Warhol Foundation partnership into a standalone narrative thread that generated significant cultural press beyond the fashion trade.
A deliberate surprise: 14 looks released simultaneously on Calvin Klein's social channels with no advance press. No interviews, no previews — just images, a Simons quote, and an April 1 date for atelier appointments to open. The communications decision to withhold and then release was as important as the collection itself — generating immediate international coverage and announcing the new era's tone before a single runway look had been shown.
Staged at 205 West 39th Street — Calvin Klein's own headquarters, chosen deliberately. A Sterling Ruby installation filled the show space. The collection: Amish quilts, clear vinyl coats, steel-toed western boots, denim. Kaia Gerber made her runway debut. Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore, SJP, and Millie Bobby Brown occupied the front row. WWD called it "a great debut." The announcement of Simons' appointment had already made this the hottest ticket at NYFW — my work was to ensure the show lived up to that billing and that the press story we built extended the moment beyond a single news cycle.
One month after the atelier opened to the public, both Julianne Moore and Gwyneth Paltrow wore Calvin Klein By Appointment to the Met Gala — fashion's highest-profile red carpet moment, and an immediate proof point for the new bespoke pillar. This was not luck. It was the result of deliberate celebrity communications and styling strategy built over the preceding months, identifying the right relationships and managing the coordination required to land the placement at exactly the right moment.
Raf Simons took both Womenswear and Menswear Designer of the Year at the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards — a rare double recognition in less than a year under his direction, and a formal endorsement from the American industry of what the brand had built. The communications strategy extended the reinvention narrative: an American institution honoring a European for making an American brand relevant again. Simons won Womenswear again in 2018, cementing the era's critical standing.
"This is probably the most distinctive vision for the brand that we've seen. The marketing all has a very similar feel and vibe, and that's something that has been missing for Calvin Klein." — Nivindya Sharma, Director of Retail Strategy & Insights, WGSN / Business of Fashion
The Raf Simons era at Calvin Klein was not a campaign. It was a transformation — of a brand's creative identity, its market positioning, its cultural standing, and its internal organization. To lead the communications through it was to hold all of those threads simultaneously: knowing what to say and what to leave unsaid, when to build anticipation and when to let the work speak, how to serve a visionary creative director while also serving the commercial realities of an $8 billion global business. The runway debuts, the atelier launch, the CFDA recognition, the Met Gala placements — none were inevitable. Each required a deliberate communications strategy, carefully executed. What I'm proudest of is not any single moment but the coherence of the whole: that for two years, every press story, every campaign launch, every cultural partnership told the same story about the same brand and made it feel like the most exciting thing happening in American fashion. That is what communications leadership at its best can do.