
Francisco Costa, womenswear designer at Calvin Klein is rethinking the way he casts models, and although he doesn't have a system - "We have no rules really, you know" - he is now aiming to move away from the waif style so synonymous with CK in the nineties, to a look more realistic to their current consumer. “We do what we feel is right for the brand. And I just feel that my customer is a real woman. She’s not 14 years old, she’s not 16 years old, so what I’m trying to do is cast models who are a little bit closer to my reality, a person who goes to my store. The reaction is really to emphasize the customer, the need for the clothes to have that immediate sort of emotion to those who would buy it.”
As for bringing back Stella Tennant and Kristen McMenamy, famous CK models from the nineties, Costa revealed they were "happy and amused" to be back on the catwalk, and the reunion just felt natural.“It felt like a family getting back together, so it felt really wonderful. And it wasn’t really a statement, in the sense of, ‘Let’s just bring these models for the press.’ It was a natural feel. I felt it was right for the time." That said, the return to a curvier Calvin girl doesn't mean Costa will stop designing for the thinner fans, though. "I don't think we can ignore anyone," he explained "[The waif look] is just historically what Calvin did. And we're just in different times and we don't want to change what was done; what was done was perfect. Calvin is genius. I just want to bring a little bit of newness to today."









