From Brooke Shields to Kendall Jenner, why Calvin Klein uses celebrity models to sell clothes

Calvin Klein has been projecting his clothes on young, rising stars since the inception of designer denims. In 1980, aged 15, Brooke Shields catapulted the American fashion house’s visibility in seductive (then controversial, now tame by comparison) advertising campaigns that pioneered a tradition of actresses doubling as models. To pilfer an adage, he gave her class, she gave him sex appeal.

More than three decades on, the tradition continues. While Kendall Jenner, Zoe Saldana and Justin Bieber pose for the brand’s underwear campaigns, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Aniston don the higher-end gowns for the Oscars, Golden Globes and the Met Gala.

At Hong Kong’s AmFar Gala last month (which raised US$4 million for Aids research) at the Shaw Studios, the brand acted as main fashion sponsor, dressing Uma Thurman, Karolina Kurkova, Liu Wen and Wendi Deng Murdoch in Calvin Klein.

At the helm stands Francisco Costa, women’s creative director at Calvin Klein Collection, who understands celebrity culture.

“It is so important to have a relationship with fine actresses – for the past 13 years we’ve made an effort to make that happen. We decided to make it an important tool for the house. It became very much part of the culture. Calvin [Klein] started the whole idea. If you see the early ads with the jeans campaigns, such as Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg [in 1991], it drives visibility and sales.”

“Spring-summer 2016 was a really successful show, the silhouette was great. We reinterpreted the Calvin Klein silhouette in a way and we really surprised people with prints,” says Costa.. “Colours, prints… that’s so not our DNA . Every season we show about 40 looks; there still are those signature pieces – but we also need to engage different people.”

Those colours, fur prints and slip dresses were such a success that Costa revisited them for autumn-winter 2016. He wanted to keep an easy silhouette and mix with the idea of menswear in womenswear.