Sex has long been the secret to selling fashion. At least that’s been the hallmark of ads by designer Calvin Klein for decades.
The company first gained notoriety with its larger-than-life billboard in New York’s Times Square that showed a well-proportioned male wearing nothing but his tighty whities and the simple caption “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.”
Along the line, other fashion houses jumped on the “sex sells” gravy train, featuring more and more lascivious displays. The sales pitch seemed to reach a fever pitch in 2014 when New York’s American Apparel fitted out its store window display with female mannequins with pubic hair.
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Not to be outdone, Klein is back — this time with a type of photo that will get you in trouble if you snap it clandestinely and without the permission of the model. It’s called an “upskirt photo” and is illegal in Massachusetts and assorted localities throughout the country. Photographing a woman’s nether regions — even if (especially if) she is wearing panties — is considered by many to be pornographic.
But it is precisely this genre that is featured in Klein’s 2016 campaign:
According to the website Fashion Gone Rogue, the Klein clan has taken a fill-in-the-blank approach for its tagline. In the case of the upskirts, the caption is completed with “flash,” whereas in shots that involve food — and usually juicy fruit — the word “eat” completes the statement.
Near nudity becomes nearer nudity in other spreads, including one that seems to suggest the correct way to wear a pair of bluejeans is backwards:
The word that completes the caption, “belfie” is according to Urban Dictionary a portmanteau formed from “buttocks” and “selfie.”
