CCS Senior Looks to the Past to Design the Future for Calvin Klein/PVH

December 3, 2020

Photo of two display torsos with white fabric sash bags with long black straps.In fall 2019, Calvin Klein/PVH challenged CCS Fashion Accessories Design students to imagine the future of fashion accessories and what that might look like within the aesthetics of the famed lifestyle brand. Now a senior, Jarek Moorman took the design studio’s objective to the next level, looking more than two generations into the future to design his collection. His bag “versus” was designed to “unify ergonomics/function and fluid visual design within an affordable and sensibly sized product”.

“I wanted to create an image for the far future of the Calvin Klein brand instead of the 2021 season,” Moorman said. “I conceived what I thought our world would look like in the next 50 years and got to a place of thinking how fashion might phase out and we would need wearables purely out of necessity. I wanted to create something that could be practical for the many unforeseeable scenarios the future holds while not going to the far reaches of techwear.”

In Moorman’s future, “job positions are malleable and human beings have a much larger variety of skills.  Our possessions will need to reflect this lifestyle by being durable, ergonomic and iconic.”

His foresight paid off: after students presented their final designs, CK/PVH selected Moorman’s “versus” prototype for a 20-bag production run at one of the brand’s New York factories. Moorman was invited to work with CK Studio designers to prep his patterns for production. “Working at CK was an amazing experience; I got to better understand how an acclaimed company such as theirs maintains itself” —  experience that will come in handy when Moorman develops his own brand of accessories one day.

Inspired by Eastern European architecture during the Cold War-era, Moorman’s process for developing his design was similarly old-school. During the research phase, the senior eschewed typical internet galleries and image references in favor of a more analog approach, including visits to John K. King Used and Rare Books. Moorman describes his design process as a pyramid, in which he begins with “an excessive amount of visual and textual data,” winnowing as he goes to gradually eliminate weaker concepts. By using collage techniques (versus Adobe Photoshop or sketching) to help build a narrative, he is able to create successive versions of the design that he says become “purer” with each iteration.

“The repetition of shapes was a big part of the project as well,” Moorman explained. “How could I simplify the patternmaking process so that only one piece needed to be cut while still using multiples of it to create what I wanted? The future of our fashion relatable consumption needs to be recovered right from its beginning by losing the vanity that goes along with it. My customer is no one and everyone.”

This way of thinking certainly fits with the iconic and enduring 51-year-old Calvin Klein brand, which encourages its customers to look beyond conventional boundaries of self-expression. Calvin Klein is a part of the PVH family of fashion and lifestyle companies that includes Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD and Geoffrey Beene, among many others.

“If you create something specific enough for only a small group of people you have successfully limited the potential of your idea spreading,” Moorman said. “To me the most iconic silhouettes and pieces are the most readily available.”