With the risqué premise of selling sex falling out of fashion, Simons’ takeover as Calvin Klein’s creative director seemed almost serendipitous with his distinctively artistic, softer take on marketing intimates and design as a whole. His breakout spring show in 2017 was critically lauded for its presentation of a beautifully epicene vision of Americana, cinema and art, winning him the Council of Fashion Designers of America Designer of the Year Award for both womenswear and menswear.
at US$4 billion and enjoys a semi-luxury status in not just the underwear market, but the wider apparel market as well with their bodysuits marketed as versatile pieces all on their own. With the body positive expansion into the lifestyle products industry, selling underwear suddenly became significantly more accessible to a whole range of players.
From lingerie to lifestyle, the underwear industry now operates under new paradigms with ample space on both ends of the market. It has become a product that redefines sexy even as it symbolises it, expanding the notion of comfort from the merely material to further, being comfortable in one’s own skin.