Six degrees

The Fall/Winter 2013/2014 menswear season is in full swing in Europe and our new face from Friday Nathaniel Visser did indeed, as predicted, make his international runway debut at Sunday's Calvin Klein Collection show - joined by Brisbane native Joel Meacock. So far we have counted twelve Australians on the menswear runways in London, Florence, Milan and Paris. Joining Visser as a new face of the season is Elijah Tyedmers - an 18 year-old Sydney University medical student who was scouted last year by Sydney's eMg Models in line buying popcorn at a Hoyts cinema. Canadian-born, but an Australian citizen (his father is Australian), Tyedmers is not spending his summer holidays lazing on a beach in Oz or Vanuatu for that matter, where his parents are based - but rather, rugged up in furs and flannels walking for the likes of Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Z Zegna and Joseph Abboud. 

New faces: Nathaniel Visser

via eMg models

Long time, no noobs. So herewith the first in frockwriter's new modelling faces series for 2013: Nathaniel Visser. 

If the shoe fits

andrej pejic models chris benz SS12 via sight management studio

We all talk – a great deal – about the sizes of the bodies of fashion models. The sizes of their feet, however, rarely come up for discussion. What an interesting topic of conversation it proved to be when we puffed this week's Anmari Botha post on both frockwriter’s and my personal Facebook pages, using one of Botha’s IMG Models showcards as an illustration – and her published shoe size, "7.5", sparked a raft of comments. “How does a 5’11” woman have such small feet?!” asked Sydney-based media trainer Shauna Stafford. Another noted, “Most women that size would have size nine or ten feet”. While a former magazine maven chimed in, “Your basic nightmare. Perfect” – referring, we assume, to the dearth of “unusual” shoe sizes in the fashion cupboard of a typical magazine.

Chesty Bond market

Australian women were all over this week’s haute couture runways in Paris - playing tag team, in fact, with their male counterparts, who wrapped up the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear menswear season in the City of Light last Sunday. Aussie male models continued their assault on the menswear market, with at least nine names nabbing blue chip shows in London, Milan and Paris. Leading the pack, once again, was Brisbane’s Angus Low who walked in 16 shows, with fellow Brisbanite, Joel Meacock and Byron Bay’s Kye D’Arcy, hot on Low’s heels.

Meet the new boy, Jack Vanderhart

models.com

On Friday, frockwriter posted about the potentially bumper season of Australian models on New York Fashion Week's runways for the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 season, which commences on Thursday. Three days later, there's already an update. Meet Cronulla's Jack Vanderhart. Modelling for just a few months, the 17 year-old's portfolio includes one editorial in Vogue Australia, two Australian GQ editorials and a campaign for pyjama tycoon Peter Alexander. According to his mother agency EMG Models, Vanderhart is about to add something with a little more international resonance to that list: Calvin Klein exclusive. EMG reports that Vanderhart has just been confirmed for Calvin Klein's menswear show in New York at 2pm on Sunday 13th February. A Calvin Klein exclusive is considered a highly prestigious get for any new model and has the potential to launch their career. Sydney's Julia Nobis scored an exclusive with the womens' show last year.

Calvin Klein gets back into the movie business ahead of the Golden Globes

Tom Ford isn’t the only American luxury brand going gung ho in the leadup to this Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles. Following the unveiling of a supersite billboard of Ford together with Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, comes a 20 second television commercial produced by Calvin Klein to run during the Globes broadcast on NBC. No this is not Calvin Klein's first tvc. Founder Calvin Klein made an impact with a series of highly provocative television spots in the 1980s and 1990s starring, among others, Brooke Shields and Kate Moss in the company's jeans, underwear and fragrances (here is a backgrounder). But this tvc, the company claims, represents the first time it has ever produced a branded tv campaign advertising Calvin Klein's designer collections (with accessories and homewares also getting a lookin). Starring world number 1 Lara Stone and Tyson Ballou, the commercial was shot on location in La Jolla, California and directed by Fabien Baron. Here is a first look.

Jessica Clarke, Calvin Klein's new exclusive - Spring/Summer 2011

calvin klein SS11 backstage/sonny vandevelde

In December 2008, after modelling for just one month, New Zealand schoolgirl Jessica Clarke so charmed New York-based ck Calvin Klein creative director Kevin Carrigan in a home movie shot by her mother agency, that he flew her to Sydney and cast her in the brand’s big bucks party on Cockatoo Island that month. Minutes ago, in what is very big news for New Zealand, the 17 year-old scored an enormous coup: a New York Fashion Week exclusive with the same company’s marquee womenswear brand, Calvin Klein Collection. Heading into the season, Clarke was tipped by top US casting director Ashley Brokaw as a face to watch. But Calvin Klein is one of the most prestigious shows on the circuit and Clarke's coup will undoubtedly provide a brilliant springboard for her international career, just as it did for Sydney’s Julia Nobis last season. 

World number #1 Lara Stone lands triple Calvin Klein exclusive (just don't call her fat)

wwd

Well Lara Stone is certainly having a moment. Womens Wear Daily reports today that Stone has booked a triple exclusive with Calvin Klein, as the advertising and runway face of Calvin Klein Collection, ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans for the upcoming Fall 2010/2011 season. The Dutch native isn’t the only model in the campaigns (Australia’s Abbey Lee Kershaw is one of several others who feature, in Kershaw’s case, in cK Calvin Klein). But according to WWD it’s the first time “in years” that the company has used one model across three brands – and the newspaper suggests this could propel Stone’s career “into the stratosphere”, given that Calvin Klein contracts were pivotal in launching the careers of several other models, including Christy Turlington and Kate Moss. But Stone is already the world number 1 on models.com, having just dethroned Brazil’s Raquel Zimmermann from the top spot. Her success and in particular, the Calvin Klein coup, are interesting for several reasons.

In March (although not screened until early April), in talking about his decision to cast several 30 and 40 plus models in his Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show, Calvin Klein Collection creative director Francisco Costa told Australian current affairs television program Today Tonight that “the 16 year olds are fantastic, they’re fresh...” but that older women “represent some kind of truth”.

Later that month, a New York modelling agent hinted that “Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and trade them in for a 2-4 … a sign of the times indeed”.

This must presumably have been around the same time that busty, size 4 Stone was being earmarked for the campaigns.

Where does that leave 16 year old Monika Jagaciak, who had previously booked two back-to-back Calvin Klein campaigns? Without a Calvin Klein campaign this season, that's where. Although Jagaciak did in fact open the FW1011 Calvin Klein womens runway show, which featured plenty of other teenagers, notably Australia’s Julia Nobis, who was booked as a runway exclusive.

So is it a victory for the "older, curvier" woman?

Forty year-old Emma Balfour, who recently returned to modelling after a long break, is tipped as a new face of Céline.

Stone is still just 27. But she has hit the top of her game after being in the business for at least 12 years - perhaps longer. Stone was reportedly scouted at the age of 12.

And her curves do look to have proven problematic in the past.

In the January edition of US Vogue, she spoke of her battles with her weight, which saw her resort at one point to popping pills, which made her "heart race". Stone also talked about a 2009 stint in rehab for alcoholism, but apparently places no blame on the fashion industry.

Stone told the magazine:

“What they say is ‘curvy,’ but you know they mean fat...It’s depressing when the clothes don’t fit and you are always the odd one out....I was on a shoot just last week and the stylist took out this tight corset dress and said, ‘Here, put it on,’ and I was like, ‘Who are you kidding?’ There was no way, so that was very rude of her. It’s like, come on, she’s a woman; whether you’re buying jeans at the mall or wearing couture, you know what it’s like for clothes not to fit. It’s not an easy kind of rejection, because it’s very personal. It’s you, your body. You take it to heart.”

With lucrative advertising contracts piling up and recently wed to Little Britain star David Walliams, who’s having the last laugh now?

Louise van de Vorst has stalkers

Or so she told frockwriter at Fitzroy, Melbourne resto Cutler & Co on March 14th, on the occasion of the Calvin Klein Collection dinner, immediately following the launch of the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Our tablemate for the duration, van de Vorst mentioned the challenges inherent in living with one of Australia's best-known musos (Silverchair's Daniel Johns). We won't go into the details, but suffice it to say, Johns has a lot of ardent fans. Although dressed for the evening in Calvin Klein Collection, the Chic Management model, fluent Dutch speaker, Gemma Ward doppelgänger and aspiring fashion designer is apparently more at home in her own label, which is due to be unveiled in one Sydney boutique in the next couple of months. Why hasn't she tried to infiltrate the OS runway season? No particular reason, she explained, before adding that she might have a crack next season. We have a hunch she would be a hit.

Julia Nobis has big feet

Yes we know she has a huge future ahead of her. A Calvin Klein exclusive at New York Fashion Week will do that for you. But apparently Australia's hottest new modelling face, Julia Nobis, also has rather large feet - US size 11 according to her Sydney mother agency Priscillas (or a US size 12 according to other sources, with some suggestion her shoe size might have precluded her being cast in some FW1011 shows). So big, that Calvin Klein was obliged to make up some custom fit shoes for her to wear for its February 18th show, according to Calvin Klein. Above is a shot of Nobis' dress rack, from backstage footage filmed by Today Tonight, showing her two changes of footwear for the show.

Today Tonight goes backstage at Calvin Klein

This story went to air on tonight's show. With Calvin Klein Collection womenswear director Francisco Costa and executive vice president global communications Malcolm Carfrae both due to speak at last month's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to show both in context in New York. After quite some negotiation, a freelance New York crew was booked and they shot at the February 18th shows (Calvin Klein has two, back-to-back - one for press, the other buyers). New York Fashion Week regulars would be aware that although the backstage areas at many shows are often crawling with camera crews, a couple of shows tend to be like Fort Knox. Calvin Klein arguably at the top of that list. I did the master interviews in Melbourne, just prior to the LMFF launch. Sadly the story did not get to run in the LMFF leadup.

I had no idea that Julia Nobis was even in the show until after it finished, otherwise I would have asked the crew to talk to her. And FYI "Yag-a-chiak" is the correct pronunciation of Jac's surname. I checked with Australia's Polish Chamber of Commerce.

I produced/wrote the story. Sally Obermeder reported and Damian Moncrieff edited.

Just a word on the intro and plasma screen graphics.

Producers are required to provide a sample intro for the anchor to read prior to each story, which is often tweaked further up the line.

Mine did mention all the Australian connections, ie in PR, the models and also the celebrities (Naomi Watts and Isobel Lucas were in the front row at the first show, with Melissa George turning up at the afterparty). Somehow, by the time the intro got to air, it had managed to morph into "Australian chiefs" being the "driving force" behind the company.

Unless Calvin Klein Inc president Tom Murry happens to have some antipodian ancestry, this will of course be news to Phillips Van Heusen.

But look, any more Australians on board and there could be a takeover.

Calvin Klein's ice breaker

Just got back from a second Calvin Klein dinner in almost as many days. Downunder to talk at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's Business Seminar on Friday, Calvin Klein Collection women's creative director Francisco Costa (above) and the company's executive vice president global communications, Sydney-bred Malcolm Carfrae, have been busy entertaining. First there was Sunday night's dinner down in Melbourne (here is WWD's report - FYI it was Marie Claire Australia editor Jackie Frank leading the "skull!" chorus). Then last night's dinner at Sydney's Coco Republic to launch Calvin Klein Home furniture, with Calvin Klein Home creative director Amy Mellen. Earlier in the day, the trio chilled out at Bondi, lunching at the iconic Icebergs restaurant, before taking a dip in the ocean, during which they were joined by a pod of dolphins. Costa reports he wore boardshorts - and not the budgie smugglers that he purchased on the weekend at the Middle Brighton Baths just outside Melbourne. Costa chose a pair with the word "ICEBERGERS" emblazoned across the derrière, named after the sea baths' year-round "Icebergers" swimming club. Not to be confused with Bondi's near century-old Icebergs swimming club over which the Icebergs restaurant was built.

A chat with Michael Angel

This blog has talked about New York-based Australian designer Michael Angel on several occasions. First, when his collection popped up in US Vogue, before there was a peep out of its Australian counterpart (which has yet to cover his work, reports Angel). Then we interviewed him via phone backstage, moments before he opened New York Fashion Week. Frockwriter just returned from a Calvin Klein dinner at Cutler & Co in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, where we finally got to meet Angel in person. Calvin Klein Collection designer Francisco Costa and the company's head of communications, Malcolm Carfrae, will both talk at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's Business Seminar on Friday. Later today, Angel will take part in something called the Designer Forum. Here's a preview of a few points he will be discussing. The only quiet place we could find was the loo - hence the dim lighting - so we locked ourselves in one cubicle and filmed away.

Julia Nobis lands a Calvin Klein exclusive

calvin klein fw1011/getty via daylife


If there's one thing that trumps getting a spot in the Marc Jacobs show at New York Fashion Week, then it's landing an exclusive at Calvin Klein. Frockwriter mentioned that Priscilla's newbie Julia Nobis was a definite one to watch at New York Fashion Week, having been tipped by influential New York casting director Michelle Lee. Less than an hour ago in New York Nobis walked the second of two Calvin Klein shows - as no less than an exclusive (as confirmed by CK's Malcolm Carfrae). In modelspeak, Calvin Klein Collection is a queenmaker and if frockwriter is not mistaken, in terms of Australians, only Gemma Ward and Abbey Lee Kershaw have walked its runways before. Neither as an exclusive.

Women are from Venus, Sonny Vandevelde to show at Mars

There are lots of reasons to check out the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which runs from March 14-21 at venues around Melbourne. Listening to Calvin Klein creative director Francisco Costa and Calvin Klein Inc's Executive Vice President of Global Communications (and Sydney expat) Malcolm Carfrae wax lyrical on helming a fashion superbrand at the Business Seminar on March 19 is one of them. As is checking in to see the sophomore exhibition of Belgralian backstage ace Sonny Vandevelde at Mars Gallery from March 13-28. Currently snapping the New York shows, the Sunster will just manage to make the opening after the FW1011 season wraps in Paris on March 10. Above is the flyer.

"Milk every contact, take risks, work for nix" - New York power PR Malcolm Carfrae on getting a foot in the door of the fashion biz

Last week Frockwriter mentioned the new Australians in New York Fashion Foundation, whose mission statement is to facilitate connections for young Australians in the New York fashion and beauty businesses. A gumleaf mafia corroboree will convene tonight in the Big Apple to launch the foundation, with a number of highprofilers tipped to attend. Just how will the program work? In 2010, a foundation prize will be awarded to one Australian citizen aged 18-28 to cover travel and accommodation expenses for up to six months, with a work experience program organised. Applications open August 1, deadline is September 15, 10 finalists to be announced November 1, with a finalists dinner - apparently in Sydney - slated for late December. The winner will be announced mid January 2010. Click here for more details. In the interim, frockwriter thought we would pick the brains of a few foundation members who have made it to the top of the competitive New York fashion media market and ask their advice for industry newcomers. Here is the first of a series of Q&As: Calvin Klein's Malcolm Carfrae.

Describe your current position and what the job involves.
Malcolm Carfrae: I am the Executive Vice President of Global Communications at Calvin Klein Inc. I oversee public relations, corporate communications, celebrity services, special events and charitable initiatives for the company world-wide.

How difficult was it to break into the New York media environment? Briefly describe the career trajectory which led you to your current position.
The tough part was getting into the fashion industry in London. I worked in retail (on the shop floor) for two years until I could find a job in fashion PR there. I worked for almost nothing and earnt my keep by working seven days a week. I was lucky enough to work for a small fashion PR agency that gave me the opportunity to grow quickly. For me, getting a job in New York was the easy part, because I was head-hunted and relocated. Once in New York, it was all about hard work and initiative. I was promoted twice at Calvin Klein, and have had my current title for about a year.

What do you know now that you dearly wish someone had told you when you first arrived in New York?
Knowledge is power in New York. I hated not knowing the best place to eat, where to cut my hair, where to buy a lamp shade. I asked a lot of questions and never asked the same question twice.

Best part about working and living in New York.
It's the most professional city in the world. People are driven and very positive, very up. Fashion is taken very seriously and people are generally well paid. It's easy to get around - Manhattan is a small island and taxis are plentiful. And the beaches that are an easy drive away.... For an Australian, it's like being at home. London can't offer that.

Worst part about working and living in New York.
The distance from Europe and Australia. I can't think of another negative.

Where are you from in Australia and what do you most miss about it?
I'm from Sydney. I miss the easy sense of humor, the light and my family but after 20 years away, the sense of longing subsides.

Considering how many Australians already work in the New York media - without any specific assistance - what prompted you to launch the foundation and how will it operate?
It's true - a lot of us made it with no specific assistance but we liked the idea of combining a social networking group with a foundation that gave something back to young Australians. Maybe it will be a little easier for Australians to find work experience or jobs in New york with our support. We'd like to see the people we help taking the knowledge back to Australia. It will function as a work experience programme, not a scholarship. We'll provide the funding and the work placements for the recipients.

What advice would you give young Australians hoping to break into the New York media/fashion/beauty business?
Milk every contact you have without stalking the person. Having the right contacts gets you everywhere in New York. Take risks and do your research. Find out everything about the company you want to work for and email everyone there you can. Offer to work for free and work nights if you have to. My current executive assistant researched me so well before her job interview, she knew I wrote short stories when I was younger. And she knew the annual turn-over of our company - impressive.

Describe your typical day at Calvin Klein.
A typical day for me is answering the many emails I get overnight from Europe, Asia and Australia (before breakfast), get to the office before the deluge of emails from the US begin. Back to back meetings, usually a lunch with editors or stylists, meetings with my team to plan the next initiatives and strategize, sitting in on interviews with our designers and accompanying them to an event after work, normally two events per night or a work dinner. Home at 11 if I'm lucky.

Frankie goes to fashionwood

givenchy SS10/wwd.com

Jethro Cave might have an edgy look, a famous dad and good connections, not to mention a Gumby earring. But the real dark horse of the Australian mens modelling scene was, as it turns out, right under our nose whilst reporting on the recent menswear season. Meet Frankie Elliss-Galati. The 19 year-old Gold Coaster was discovered by Sydney-based photographer Chris Ferguson in a Brisbane sushi bar in January. After booking jobs for Vogue Australia and Bisonte, among others, he headed to the mens Spring/Summer 2010 shows in Europe. In his first international season he walked for names including Christian Dior Homme, Givenchy, Thierry Mugler, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Calvin Klein, Trussardi and Tim Hamilton (which he closed) - a feat noted by models.com, which included him on its Top 10 Men’s New Faces for SS10. Not that anyone thus far appears to have been aware of his nationality.

Although repped in Australia by Viviens, Elliss-Galati's mother agent is in fact LA-based Australian Patrick Corcoran, who, like Ferguson, is a former Chic Management booker.

At Givenchy (above), Elliss-Galati got to wear one of the more extreme studded pieces which were inspired by the proposed collaboration between Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci and the late Michael Jackson, for Jackson's O2 Centre concerts in London. Tisci was reportedly due to meet with Jackson about the costumes on Monday 29th June, obviously an appointment that Jackson never made.



christian dior homme SS10 (top); robert cavalli SS10/wwd.com

At 14 this Polish teenager was banned from RAFW. Then she opened Calvin Klein

calvin klein FW0910/wwd

A shoutout to Monika Jagaciak. On Sunday we mentioned that although banned in Sydney last year, Jagaciak, now 15, had made a “breakthrough” in New York. Given that New York Fashion Week's Fall/Winter 09/10 season was only a couple of days old - and in spite of models.com hyperbole - it was an ambitious statement. Well, after scoring some of the week’s biggest shows, including Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Proenza Schouler, Jagaciak has just pulled off the ultimate model coup: opening and closing Calvin Klein. To be sure, there are many big shows in New York, however none as highly coveted from a modelling perspective as Calvin Klein. This journalist feels we owe Jagaciak a special thumbsup, given that we shoulder much responsibility for the fracas in which she became engulfed in the leadup to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week last year.

Click here to see the complete Calvin Klein collection on wwd.com.

To recap, in early 2008 IMG announced plans to fly out a contingent of its ‘Development’ board models to tread the runways at Australian Fashion Week, which is operated by IMG.

The idea served two purposes: to give IMG’s fledglings some off-main circuit runway experience and also, rev up the quality of AFW’s much-maligned group shows.

The Development girls had been promised minimum work in the group shows – with anything else up for grabs once they attended castings.

Jagaciak was promoted to local media above the other girls, as the VIP “face” of the event.

A promotional photograph of Jagaciak, lying on her back in a Vichy spa, wearing a wet, white swimsuit, was provided to The Sunday Telegraph, which published it on April 6, not thinking to ask her age.

Here is the image:


l'officiel singapore via TFS

But the names and most of the ages of the IMG Development girls had been documented in this April 5 blog post (on a blog called Fully Chic, which I was writing at the time for NEWS.com.au, News Limited's Australian online news portal).

After an April 7 phone call to Jagaciak's Polish mother agency, it emerged that Jagaciak had only recently turned 15 - and had been 13 at the time the shot was taken. Taken by Singaporean photographic duo Chuando & Frey, the image had been published in the February 2008 edition of L’Officiel Singapore.

A subsequent April 8 blog post entitled, “This Polish teenager was 13 when this photo was taken, do you have a problem with it?”, promoted on page one of NEWS.com.au, sparked considerable reader debate.

On April 9, Vogue Australia cancelled a planned cover shoot with Jagaciak, claiming Jagaciak was too young (in spite of the fact that Vogue had previously featured a 15 year-old New Zealander on the cover).

On April 11 The Daily Telegraph (same publisher as The Sunday Telegraph) jumped onto the story, asking “Should Monika Jagaciak be at Australian Fashion Week?” - soliciting comment from, among others, the Australian Family Association.

Later that day IMG FASHION Asia Pacific made the decision to ban all under-16s from the event.

Several weeks later News Limited dispatched a news crew to Poland.

According to IMG FASHION Asia Pacific managing director Simon Lock, the crew staked out Jagaciak's home and school, upsetting her. The incident prompted heated debate between the various IMG offices (the latter witnessed by independent sources).

The Daily Telegraph published paparazzi-style long-distance shots of Jagaciak en route to school with a classmate in this May 1 2008 story.

The story included quotes from Jagaciak's mother and local model agent and does make make reference to a gag order from IMG.

According to Lock, The Telegraph crew was dispatched to Poland after initial interview requests with the Jagaciak family were denied by IMG.

I was unable to blog about this at the time due to the fact that I was working for News Ltd.

I found out about it at AFW, when Lock bailed me up one day to say (words to the effect), “Do you know how much trouble you caused that young girl?”.

For the record - and one more time - I would just like to state that I do not personally have an issue with underage models.

But that is on the very strict proviso that underage models are fully chaperoned by responsible adults. And that the work they do is age-appropriate.

By age-appropriate, I mean that underage models should not be permitted to pose for sexually provocative imagery.

No Australian media outlets asked if Gemma Ward was too young for AFW, even though Ward was 15 when she debuted on its runways in May 2003, one of many 15 year-olds who have participated in the event.

Nor were any questions asked when Tallulah Morton opened the Josh Goot show in May 2005. Morton's agent told media outlets that she was 14. It later emerged that she was in fact 13 at the time.

Banning underage models from major fashion events does not protect them from exploitation. Notwithstanding unscrupulous parties who try to take nude backstage shots of models changing, underage girls are in fact likely to be safer at major fashion events than anywhere else, by virtue of the fact that these events are crawling with media outlets.

Banning Jagaciak from AFW did not prevent the subsequent production and publication of yet more provocative photographs - including several shots in which her breasts are clearly visible.

Evidently neither IMG nor Jagaciak’s parents have had a problem with that.

That’s great if Jagaciak has finally cracked the big time. Well done. She would undoubtedly have arrived there with or without a few turns down the relatively low profile Sydney runway.

And look, if any company has a history of embracing sexually provocative imagery of teenagers, it’s Calvin Klein.

Prêt-à-Twitter: First look @ Calvin Klein

@instyledotcom via twitpic


Courtesy instyle.com via Twitpic five minutes ago. Thanks to Twitter we also know that Eva Mendes and Kate Beckinsale are front row as we are looking at this. Did you have any doubt that Twitter has revolutionised #NYFW?

Grandmaster flesh and the furious hive mind: The art of Calvin Klein

steven meisel/calvin klein via wwd

And so to the new Calvin Klein Jeans video which has been picked up very quickly since its launch on WWD overnight. Normally I try not to touch the same material that bigger blogs are discussing, because well, I assume that many of frockwriter’s readers have already seen the story there and I try to do new material. But the CK video is interesting for several reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that a big deal seems to be being made out of the video being “banned” from even late night cable tv in the US - and now, it seems, even restricted by the YouTube community. (UPDATE 31/1: VIDEO SINCE DISABLED BY CK. PLEASE GO TO CALVINKLEIN.COM OR CLICK THIS WWD LINK TO SEE THE VIDEO).



The grainy video, shot by Steven Meisel, depicts a group of women and men, half-naked save for their Calvin Klein Jeans, writhing on a couch as if engaging in foreplay for a ménage-à-six.

The scene is dark, the video quality grainy, as if it shot on a home movie camera.

The multi-girl/boy campaign, which also embraces print, reportedly stars models Anna Maria Jagodzinska, Anna Selezneva, Edita Vilkeviciute, Natasha Poly and Naty Chabanenko. According to models.com, the campaign also includes Danny Schwarz, Vladimir Ivanov, Carson Parker and Mikus Lasmanis.

All appear to be over the age of 18. Over 20 in several cases.

To be sure, fashion editorial is vastly different to the medium of television. Women routinely appear topless in mainstream fashion imagery. More so, certainly, of late.

But even last year’s Secret Obsession commercial, shot by Fabien Baron and in which Eva Mendes is seen to writhe topless on a bed, managed to make the 9pm timeslot on US cable tv.

Calvin Klein runs the “uncensored” version of the Secret Obsession ad on its own website - which is where the new Calvin Klein Jeans tvc is due to bow today.

According to WWD the video will screen in Europe uncensored and Calvin Klein is working on an edited version to screen on cable in the US.

This campaign is tame compared with Meisel’s recent "dogging" editorial in V Magazine, in which a number of models - including Selezneva and Chabanenko - simulated sexually explicit acts in semi-public places.

The latter editorial was reportedly originally turned down by Vogue Italia.

But the Calvin Klein Jeans campaign does look like an audition for a porn movie - an industry in which Selezneva, Chabanenko, Jagodzinska and co might ostensibly have found themselves ensnared, were it not for the fact they were plucked from east European obscurity by international model scouts on the lookout for new talent.

Calvin Klein is by no means the only fashion or beauty company to use sex and soft porn to sell its products. From Tom Ford to American Apparel and Estee Lauder, the list seems endless.

Estee Lauder's tvcs for two separate Sean Combs fragrances in 2006 and 2007, which co-starred Australian models Lisa Seiffert and Jessica Gomez, were similarly restricted on US television.

But at least Calvin Klein can claim the soft porn genre is part of the company's brand DNA.

Launching his company in 1968 with startup capital of US$10,000, Calvin Klein sold the business to Phillips-Van-Heusen for US$700million in 2002 - excluding the jeans, underwear and swimwear businesses, which were at that time owned by Warnaco.

By late 2008, the Calvin Klein Inc business had surpassed US$6billion in global retail sales.

Klein originally made his name with his minimalist sportswear collections, which earned him the nickname of "Calvin Clean".

But he essentially made his fortune as Calvin Dirty, growing the business via the far more lucrative high volume categories of denim, underwear and fragrance which were promoted via "hot", sexually-charged imagery. The bigger the controversy, the greater the publicity.

Klein's most controversial campaigns involved minors.

In 1980, 15 year-old Brooke Shields appeared in a series of Calvin Klein Jeans advertisements, famously proclaiming that “nothing” comes between her and her Calvins. In one tvc Shields is sitting in jeans with her legs splayed before the camera.

It is difficult to imagine these ads even getting to air today. But then it is also difficult to imagine Louis Malle’s 1978 film Pretty Baby being made today without considerable fuss. In the film, the then 12 year old Shields plays a child prostitute, including some nude scenes.

The Brooke Shields ads were reportedly pulled by all three of the tv networks on which they aired.

Here are three of the videos:





WWD reports that the new Steven Meisel campaign is the first Calvin Klein Jeans commercial produced for television since the 1980s.

However Meisel was the author of the so-called 1995 “kiddie porn” campaign for Calvin Klein Jeans, which reportedly included tvcs (as opposed to cinema spots).

Originally inspired by an editorial shot earlier that year by Meisel for Italy's L'Uomo Vogue, teenagers as young as 15 were interviewed by an anonymous sleazy videographer, as if participating in an adult film audition.

Said to be inspired by "picture set" pornography of the '60s and staged with a wood-panelled 'basement' backdrop, the models cavort, and in some cases, squirm, before the camera.

In the print version, some models were pictured with their legs spread and their underwear showing.

In the video, a voiceover interjects with comments such as:

“You got a real nice look. How old are you? Are you strong? You think you could rip that shirt off of you? That's a real nice body. You work out? I can tell."

That year Klein told Advertising Age, that the ads had been intended to:

"express the spirit, independence and inner worth of today's young people."

Glancing back at the clips now however via YouTube (see below), it's not youthful independence and inner worth which seem to be being celebrated here, as much as human merchandise and the power trip of a sexual predator.

After sparking an outcry from conservative groups, criticism from President Clinton and even an FBI child pornography probe, the campaign was eventually withdrawn.



Just three months later Klein was obliged to withdraw a second campaign, after coming under fire over a new Calvin Klein Underwear image.

Shot by Tiziano Magni, the campaign included a provocative image of 20 year-old American model Joel West sitting with his legs spread wide open before the camera. Some suggested that West looked aroused.


calvin klein via zeitgeistworld.com

In February 1999, apparently oblivious to the perimeters of his soft porn franchise, Klein did not blink when enlisting the services of Mario Testino to photograph a series of small children clad in only their CK knickers to promote his new childrens line.

In a statement to The New York Times, Klein said that the campaign had been:

"intended to show children smiling, laughing and just being themselves. We wanted to capture the same warmth and spontaneity that you find in a family snapshot".

However the images (^), which were published in fullpage spreads in both The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living and were due to appear on a giant Times Square billboard, prompted yet more controversy. Morality in Media president Robert Peters said at the time, "At Calvin Klein, nothing is innocent."

The campaign was withdrawn within 24 hours.

Noted Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in The New York Times, prior to the announcement of the decision to withdraw the campaign:

"I think they're in very bad taste. But I can't stop them. I mean, there's the First Amendment."