EXPERIMENTING WITH FORM AND FABRIC, CALVIN KLEIN’S ITALIAN MASTER IS ON TARGET TO REINVENT MODERN AMERICAN MENSWEAR
Schooled in fashion and architecture in Florence and trained at Jil Sander and Romeo Gigli, Italo Zucchelli is a designer’s designer. Since 2004, the Italian creative director of the mens’ Calvin Klein Collection has approached the American brand’s heritage much like an architect would plan the renovation of a historic building.
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Schooled in fashion and architecture in Florence and trained at Jil Sander and Romeo Gigli, Italo Zucchelli is a designer’s designer. Since 2004, the Italian creative director of the mens’ Calvin Klein Collection has approached the American brand’s heritage much like an architect would plan the renovation of a historic building.
“Working with Jil Sander gave me an understanding of minimalism at its core,” he explains. Add to that three years under the wing of Klein himself—spearheading four men’s and two women’s collections—and Zucchelli has fully and naturally embraced the company’s aesthetic, while showcasing his own background and point of view.
For fall, Zucchelli found his moment. An innovative expression of modern menswear, the line wasn’t shown in Milan, but, for the first time, during New York Fashion Week. Loafers flashed brushed-metal studs, while suits flaunted lean silhouettes. But the show-stoppers were the materials, notably a new Japanese fabric with the shine and consistency of mercury and an industrial foam that added structure and interest to jackets. The recent CFDA award-winner was inspired by a material rarely seen on the runway: padding used in bicycle seats.“I wanted to put the material together with something familiar and dressier and make it sleek and wearable.”
While Zucchelli is reluctant to draw a straight line between architecture and the current collection, he nonetheless admits the skills acquired during his studies are evident. “Architecture is about design, but the size, scope and materials are different,” Zucchelli says.
“My design process is rigorous, sometimes a little mathematical, which makes it close to how an architect works, since they, too, must take into consideration many elements. Both disciplines force you to be analytical to some extent.” Minimalism? Re-appropriating materials? A mathematical approach? Once an architect, always an architect.
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