Veronica Leoni Is Leaving Calvin Klein

Two years after their partnership began, Calvin Klein and Veronica Leoni are parting ways. Leoni was brought on to revive Collection, the high-end runway line that had been suspended since 2019. Her appointment signaled a move back into the fashion space for the American fashion and lifestyle brand, which had hoped to reassert its signature minimalist aesthetic.

Leoni was born outside of Rome in 1985. Growing up, she studied fashion, honing her skills at a family-run Italian house. Her first big job in the industry was head of knitwear at Jil Sander under Raf Simons. In 2014, she joined Céline in its #oldceline heyday under Phoebe Philo. She worked there for three years, then left to design a capsule collection for Moncler. In 2021, she founded her own label, Quira, named after her grandmother Quirina, for which she was a 2023 LVMH Prize finalist. Around the same time, she also began contributing to the Row, helping the brand to expand its presence in Europe. But she put all of that on hold in 2024 to join Calvin Klein.

Leoni, who divided her time between New York and Rome, was the first woman to lead the house—and one of the few helming a major fashion brand today. The appointment was a natural fit; her aesthetic has always been one of quirky restraint. She loves an interesting mix of masculine and feminine elements, as seen in her often oversized proportion play and slightly severe tailoring.

Her first efforts for Calvin Klein Collection embraced minimalist tailoring and draped eveningwear in a palette that leaned neutral save a few pops of butter yellow, pinky purple, and bright red. It was respectful to Klein’s legacy without relying too heavily on the archives. By her last presentation, just four seasons later, Klein had pared things back even further, embracing what she described as a total absence of decoration in favor of only what was essential in an homage to the incredible sparsity Klein championed decades prior.

Founded in New York in 1968, Calvin Klein’s eponymous brand helped to shape the great, big legacy of American minimalism. In the ’90s—as documented in last year’s Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. epic Love Story—his aesthetic became the uniform of the fashionable working woman. (CBK famously began her career there in the PR department.) Klein sold his company to PVH Corp. in 2003, then left the business in 2006. He was succeeded by Francisco Costa and, later, Raf Simons.

By the late 2010s, the brand was struggling to assert its identity on the runway. In the branding realm, however, it had no trouble. Calvin Klein is famous for its underwear and denim campaigns, beginning with Brooke Shields’s controversial “nothing gets between me and my Calvins” CK denim ads in 1980 through to the buzzy underwear ads featuring stars like Kate Moss, Jeremy Allen White, Michael B. Jordan, and many, many more. The relaunch of the Collection was an attempt to close the gap between the fashion and the mythos.

“I want to thank Veronica for her creative vision, commitment, and partnership over the past two years,” said David Savman, Calvin Klein’s global brand president, in an official statement. “Reintroducing Collection was a significant milestone for Calvin Klein, and Veronica’s exceptional talent and fresh perspective on Calvin’s iconic design codes helped build meaningful momentum for Collection. Collection remains an important part of our brand; we are excited by the progress to date and look forward to its continued evolution.”

Per the press release, Leoni will exit at the end of her contract. Calvin Klein will, however, continue the Collection line and announce new creative leadership in due course. This is not an easy job; brands across the fashion spectrum have struggled to capture the magic of ’90s minimalism through a distinctly ’20s lens. But perhaps minimalism has to look different today. After all, the audience can just head to the vintage market if they want a piece of the OG look. It will be interesting to see how the next interpreter of this storied brand balances the behemoth commercial enterprise with the je ne sais quoi of the fashion legacy.