From The Archive: 9 Still-Fresh Calvin Klein Looks From ’80s & ’90s Issues Of Vogue
“New York doesn’t often have the kind of debuts it saw today,” Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps wrote of Veronica Leoni’s first outing at the helm of Calvin Klein on 7 February. Watched by an audience that included Christy Turlington and Kate Moss – to say nothing of the King of Clean himself – the 63-look collection was a salute to “the original energy” that invigorated Klein’s brand in its ’80s and ’90s heyday. As Eve MacSweeney wrote in a tribute to the American designer for Vogue at the height of his powers, “he was the first to understand how to say more with less” – and the British public was just as enamoured with his cool, elegant designs as their counterparts across the Atlantic. Here, in honour of Leoni’s arrival at the brand, revisit some of Klein’s greatest looks in the pages of British Vogue.
Alex Chatelain1/9January 1982
More than a decade before she entered the broader British public’s consciousness via Four Weddings and a Funeral, Vogue dispatched Andie MacDowell to island hop her way around the Aegean for a story on The New Sun Travellers. Her mode of transport: a 65-foot-yacht named after 19th-century American schooner the Prince de Neufchatel. Here, MacDowell hits the deck in a Calvin Klein dress and “cotton sailing cap” she bought on location in Mykonos.
Patrick Demarchelier2/9September 1987
Vogue’s September 1987 issue was, naturally, devoted to the international collections: “Paris: Seduction. Milan: Glamour. London: Panache. New York: Modernity,” its cover lines summarised. Still, two pages were given over to a round-up of “new young stars of cinema”, including a 23-year-old Juliette Binoche; Richard E Grant, fresh from his turn in Withnail and I; and Lisa Bonet in a strapless Calvin Klein dress.
Patrick Demarchelier3/9January 1988
For one of Naomi Campbell’s earliest Vogue shoots, Patrick Demarchelier had her pose for a Winter Heat editorial devoted to “sand shades of ochre, coffee and shimmering ivory”. Here, she wears Calvin Klein’s “decorative lace” with a full face of distinctly ’90s make-up courtesy of Estée Lauder.
Herb Ritts4/9October 1988
“Stretched along limbs, over statuesque curves, the shapely new bodysuit evolves,” reads the introduction to the above shoot, captured by Herb Ritts and titled Metamorphosis of the Body. Here, Tatjana Patitz poses in a jersey and Lycra design made to order by Calvin Klein at Harvey Nichols.
Herb Ritts5/9April 1989
Vogue’s beauty obsession in April 1989? Metallics, with Herb Ritts dispatched to the lava-strewn landscapes of Hawaii to capture an editorial titled Ore-Struck. Here, a model poses in a Calvin Klein swimsuit and “opaque silver theatrical hair spray” in Kalapana, which was decimated by a Kīlauea eruption less than a year later.
Patrick Demarchelier6/9April 1992
Tatjana Patitz travelled through Egypt for an April 1992 shoot, wandering around the Temple of Isis at Philae, camel riding past the Pyramids of Giza, and sailing a felucca down the Nile to Aswan. During the latter excursion, she experimented with all-white looks, including men’s shirting from Paul Smith paired with Calvin Klein capris.
Arthur Elgort7/9January 1992
“Plain beautiful!” Vogue declared in the introduction to this January 1992 shoot, which saw Christy Turlington and Arthur Elgort head to Tanzania for a safari in and around the Ngorongoro crater. Here, Christy takes “afternoon tea” at Lemala camp while wearing a straw hat from Ralph Lauren, a pearl choker courtesy of Chanel, and a “split sun dress with shoestring straps” by Calvin Klein.
Andrew MacPherson8/9March 1993
London was swinging once again in the early ’90s, with Vogue rounding up “the people and the performers” who were illuminating the city. There was a 22-year-old Jamiroquai, “fresh from signing a stellar eight-album deal with Sony”; photographers David Sims and Corinne Day; designer John Galliano (“right up there with Marmite as one of our finest exports”); and, of course, Kate Moss and her then boyfriend Mario Sorrenti – although, at the time, he was the more famous of the two. “In the past six months Mario Sorrenti has come from photographic obscurity to shooting alongside Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel for top magazines,” reads Vogue’s caption. “Three years ago he left the States to live in Notting Hill, where he hangs out and cooks pasta for Kate Moss, his girlfriend of two years. He cooks, she cleans.”
