THE THEOLOGY OF CALVIN

At the launch of Calvin Klein Platinum Label, the brand’s global creative director KEVIN CARRIGAN tells VINCENZO LA TORRE about his days under the man himself and a new era at the American fashion colossus

sex sells – and it’s always in. Hemlines may go down and necklines may go up; minimalism and primness may take over the runways for one season or two, but one of the unassailable truths in fashion is that nothing titillates consumers like the come-hither gaze of a scantily clad model beckoning from the pages of a magazine or from a billboard plastered on a city building. Just ask Tom Ford, who based his tenure at Gucci on a hyper-sexualised aesthetic that has come to define the turn of the century.

But the man who started it all, the designer who saw the potential of sex and used it to build an empire, is without any doubt the Bronx-born Calvin Klein, the founder of the quintessentially American eponymous brand.

It’s ironic that if there’s a garment that has come to define the ’90s, the decade of grunge and of the sleek look championed by designers such as Helmut Lang, it’s not a piece of clothing at all, but a pair of those ubiquitous Calvin Klein underwear trunks that both men and women began to expose like status symbols underneath their barelythere tank tops and low-rise jeans.

Who can forget a waifish Kate Moss in the arms of a buff Marky Mark in those stark black-and-white ads? Not to mention Moss again in those stripped-down photos for Obsession, one of the house’s most successful fragrances, or that other Calvin Klein muse, Christy Turlington, playing an all-American goddess in those Eternity ads?

“Nothing comes between me and my Calvins,” mouthed a then-15-year-old Brooke Shields in those controversial commercials that have become the stuff of legend in marketing history.

It was pure genius on the part of the designer, who during his career built a consistent image of pared-down luxury that to this day can only be defined as “very Calvin.”

A protégé who saw it all, standing by Klein’s side and taking the mantle after the designer retired slightly over a decade ago, is Kevin Carrigan, the brand’s global creative director. Although his colleagues Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli helm the high-end womenswear and menswear lines respectively, it’s Carrigan who’s behind those denim pants, cashmere hoodies and sexy underwear that make the tills go kaching! On a recent trip to Hong Kong for the launch of Calvin Klein Platinum Label, a revamp of the house’s men’s and women’s lines, the British-born and New York-based Carrigan sat down to chat about working with Klein himself, those iconic images and revisiting the house’s roots for a 21st-century audience.

Canyoutellmemoreaboutthedebutof CalvinKleinPlatinumLabel?

We started this about two years ago because we brought back our jeans and underwear from licensing, and with the CK Calvin Klein brand we’ve been elevating the fabrics. We thought, there are so many brands out there with high-low collections and