TRANSFORMATIONS: Raf Simons Has Introduced A New Logo For Calvin Klein

Three iterations of the Calvin Klein logo from the original (top), the early 1990s tweak (middle) and the new Raf Simons update (bottom)

There is always a highly anticipated reveal at every Fashion Week, which has only been accelerated by the revolving doors in front of so many major designer labels. Runway followers will anxious to see if the Monse designers can save Oscar de la Renta, as well as if Carolina Herrera can recover from her battle with them. The biggest news on New York, however, is the debut of Raf Simons as Calvin Klein's new creative director. While Simons' long running men's collection gave a much needed boost to New York Fashion Week Men's last week, His debut at Calvin Klein is the big news, and while the designer has kept his activity pretty quiet, he has started to hint at how he will remake the iconic American label, starting with a simple signal that he is reviewing every detail; a new logo.
Readers of early delivering March magazines like Vanity Fair may have noticed a pair of new ads for jeans and underwear that departed dramatically from the brand's signature sexy aesthetic. Rather than close shots of sexy models, tha ads show long shots taken of models from behind as they survey major artworks at the Rubell Family Collection museum in Miami. The most striking change, however is the logo in an all-caps sans serif font that subtly signals a major change (pictured on the bottom in the image above).
Calvin Klein's familiar logo has been remarkably consistent over the previous decades of the company's existence. Ralph Lauren, whose business began at relatively the same time, has cycled through several logo iterations for his various collections over the years, by comparison. Nearly 40 years old (pictured at the top in the above image), the crisp, modern font of the Calvin Klein mark has aged remarkably well, and has only been significantly altered once, in the early nineties (middle logo in image) with a subtle tweak of its proportions by the graphic maestro of that moment, Fabien Baron. The logo has remained otherwise untouched until this past Friday, when Simons' new version has made its debut not only in magazine pages, but on the top of the homepage at CalvinKlein.com and on the brand's Instagram and Twitter pages. Created in collaboration with noted graphic designer Peter Saville, it is officially meant to be "A return to the spirit of the original. An acknowledgement of the founder and foundations of the fashion house."
The last time such a well known logo was changed was when Hedi Slimane decided to rebrand the prêt-à-porter collections at Yves Saint Laurent as simply Saint Laurent, with a label based on the original Saint Laurent Rive Gauche logo that caused an ongoing uproar among fans of the brand. It's not likely that Simons redesign will cause as much drama, but it will serve the same purpose to delineate and officially identify the new designers' vision from that of his forerunners. It may not be the only labeling and repositioning move that Simons has in store. Just a couple of weeks ago, Simons made waves with the discovery of an otherwise unknown new division, Calvin Klein by Appointment, opening to the public the company's custom division which had previously only been available to actresses in need of red carpet attire. The division was announced on social media and with a special group of ads in the Sunday New York Times photographed by longtime Simons collaborator Willy Vanderperre. Those ads also carried a different font, one that reflected the original logo before the 90s era tweak. Part of Raf Simons' new responsibilities at Calvin Klein is to unify the company's disparate design directions under one strong aesthetic. The new men's and women' collection lines will finally be unveiled together next week, possibly with more information about how Simons will be revamping Calvin Klein's offerings.