Last night the fashion world celebrated Francisco Costa’s 10th anniversary as women’s creative director for Calvin Klein Collection. Naturally, the f-row was peppered with celebrities of the highest calibre; Nicole Kidman, Naomie Harris, Rooney Mara and Alexander Skarsgard all paid their dues, not to mention La Wintour, Della Russo, Carine and the rest of the A-list fashion mafia.
So it comes as a bit of surprise that these glitzy runway spectaculars are lost on Francisco.
In a fascinating interview with
WWD
, the designer covers everything from the pitfalls of celebrity dressing, to the "homely" atmosphere working at Oscar de la Renta (“he had lunch for us every day”).
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The designer also talks about how few of the clothes we see on the runway ever make it into stores, and how increasingly his job is about creating commercially friendly reinterpretations of the clean-lined pieces he sends pounding down the runway.
Instead, he compares catwalk shows to celebrity dressing: “I think the shows have become spectaculars. It’s propaganda...It has to excite.” He also admits that the fashion house is sometimes forced to “compromise” its aesthetic in order to make sure that a gown gets worn by the right A-lister.
Still, he admits that celebrities and fashion need to lean on each other: “It’s a major importance. It cannot be ignored. It’s just part of the business...Scarlett [Johansson] was our first hit. Scarlett is a curvy, beautiful woman. She’s a goddess.”
(WWD)