Heron Preston Dabbled In Calvin Klein’s Expansive Archive For His New Creative Partnership

“Respect for Calvin Klein himself” was the pivotal focus of Heron Preston’s latest creative partnership with the brand. From memories of his father wearing the cologne, to skating underneath a giant billboard in Downtown emblazoned with vintage Calvin campaigns and becoming a consumer himself, Heron has always had a relationship with Calvin Klein.

With the powerful pairing comes a New York-ified, effortlessly cool collection of highly wearable staples, modelled by a troupe of cultural movers and shakers: Kaia Gerber, Nas, Ashley Graham, Jordan Alexander, Lil Uzi Vert and Heron’s partner Sabrina Albarello are among the roster of names in the campaign, lensed by Renell Medrano.

One year on from when he and Calvin Klein’s global chief merchant, head of product strategy and new product ventures, Jacob Jordan, embarked on the first major creative partnership since Raf Simons’ departure, they soon became aware that not all was to be smooth-sailing. “All of a sudden we were forced to do it in a way like we’ve never done it before,” Jordan tells British Vogue of the challenges the pair faced as a result of the pandemic. Despite the difficulties, the creative vision went exactly to plan. “You’re learning new things from whoever you’re working with. Now, you add on the context of the circumstances that we were working in, and it was like, wow – this is really something new for everyone.”

Wardrobe-binding staples have forever been at the heart of the CK design blueprint, lending well to the unprecedented moment when the world suddenly found themselves living in tracksuits. “We wanted to deliver a wardrobe for a whole new kind of a new world,” Heron muses. The all-rounder creative – who counts djing, creative direction and the pioneering of his own cult namesake label among his skillset – was a natural fit for the role. “Seeing how he approached things, what influences him as a designer, what’s important to him and how he reinterpreted different codes or things throughout the house and use them in like different ways, was really special,” Jordan remarks.

With the expansive Calvin Klein archive (Heron notes it is “like a museum”) and weight of the brand’s influence at his fingertips, Heron was keen to refresh and remodel – but not disrupt – the existing design codes. “I didn’t want to necessarily step on that, but celebrate it amplify it, bring it into the future and modernise it in a way but also still kind of keeping it very Calvin.”

Nods to the archive arrive via direct design homages: a corset dress that he found is elevated in textured fleece; a pair of carpenter pants and a trucker jacket are uplifted with contemporary raw fabrics. Colours, too, were extracted from CK’s wondrous archive. “Klein blue” and chalk – the latter of which Preston spent hours rummaging for – are seen interspersed with his signature bright-orange hue.

Heron admits to obsessing over the details. Unexpected flairs seen throughout the wonderfully minimalist collection, like waistband pops of colour and eye-catching trimmings, he added in hope to “distract a friend” and command attention. Hours labouring over the creation of the “perfect tee,” a lifelong goal of the designer, resulted in boxy, heavyweight styles with a raised rib crew-neck that “almost looks 3D.”

Heron’s personal preferences informed the design approach: years spent wearing hoodies inside-out inspired a style with a pocket in the lining; Heron imagined Calvin Klein’s logo waistbands peeping out from sagging trousers, influenced by his love of skateboarding, and the cuffs of soft sweatpants were loosened to relieve tightness when he “rolls them up to get a pedicure.”