Brooke Shields’s Iconic Calvin Klein Ad Is Now a Jeans Tag

It’s been 35 years since a 15-year-old Brooke Shields famously claimed, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” But the spirit of the 1980 ad is ever-present.

Calvin Klein‘s chief creative officer, Raf Simons’ included a nod to the supermodel in his ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2017 collection, titled “Parade.” Shields was sitting front row at Friday’s show — with denim labels picturing the ad sewn onto jeans and a jacket.

Back in 1980, television networks banned Shields’s Calvin Klein ad (one in a series that had her posing with her legs above her head and pulling the jeans over her bare legs) due to the implication that she wasn’t wearing underwear, according to the New York Times.

But the job was just business as usual for Shields, who had been modeling her entire life, at the insistence of her mother, Teri Shields. Her mom had nude photos taken of her daughter at age 10 and convinced her to accept the role of a child prostitute in the film Pretty Baby, reported AdvertisingAge. But the Calvin Klein ad launched the teen into superstardom (and later, a role in the film The Blue Lagoon), even as it prompted an investigation into the brand by the Justice Department that was eventually dropped.

Shields’s ads paved the way for more Calvin Klein controversy — think a shirtless Mark Wahlberg posing with a 17-year-old topless Kate Moss in a 1993 ad, as well as a 1995 campaign with models who looked so young that the company was forced to prove they were legal adults.

Shields, however, wasn’t fazed, telling the New York Post in 2010, “I look at these pictures now and I still am sort of shocked that they became so legendary. For me, it was just a huge job I went to after school at 3 o’clock. The one with my leg up, I just remember my arm hurting. You can’t plan on being iconic.”

She added: “The controversy [over declaring, ‘You wanna know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.’] didn’t surprise me because I’d had experience with it since I was 11. The pants came above my belly button — even the one with my shirt open, you didn’t see anything. Compared to the things I’d done before, this was like being in winter gear.”

On Friday, Shields was more nostalgic, telling WWD of the modern-day rendition, “It feels like yesterday, and at the same time, it feels like a lifetime ago. But it still feels like the perfect fit — and I’m not using a jeans analogy. No pun intended.”

Read more:

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A Super-Political David Bowie Song Opened the Calvin Klein Runway Show

Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, and More Celebs Packed the Calvin Klein Front Row

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