Calvin Klein calls in Tim Coppens as a design consultant

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Feb 1, 2020

As it continues its repositioning efforts one year after the departure of its creative director, Raf Simons, Calvin Klein has called in another Belgian designer: Tim Coppens. The New York-based, PVH-owned brand has given the designer a temporary role as consultant design director at its Calvin Klein ready-to-wear line.

 
"Calvin Klein, Inc. has hired Tim Coppens as consultant design director for menswear at our Calvin Klein business, exclusively for products distributed in Asia under license through our partner Club 21," explained the American company. Calvin Klein is the brand's contemporary apparel line. 
 
Thus far, the group has given no further details. Following a complicated 2019, Calvin Klein is yet to find its new creative director. Last March, the brand discontinued its high-end Calvin Klein 205W39NYC line (formerly known as Calvin Klein Collection), and its iconic Madison Avenue store was also closed. 

A number of employees were dismissed in New York but also in Milan, where Calvin Klein closed its offices in spring in order to integrate the remainder of this workforce into its European HQ in Amsterdam. In June Cheryl Abel-Hodges became CEO. 

Having graduated from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1998, Tim Coppens set himself up in New York, where he founded the luxury sportswear label that bears his name in 2011. He has collaborated with the likes of Ralph Lauren RLX, Bogner, Adidas and Under Armour Sportswear, among others. It remains to be seen if this experiment at Calvin Klein might lead to a longer lasting partnership with the brand.