The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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More than any other designer, Bronx-born Calvin Klein has rendered fashion as popular culture. Long an elite and "trickle-down" phenomenon from most privileged clothes to least, fashion is wholly democratic for Klein beginning with his success in Calvin Klein jeans in the 1970s, continued through massive advertising, and sustained in such forms as designer underwear. He is now the designer fashion students aspire to emulate; the designer whose name appears on innumerable T-shirts and underwear waistbands. He was the first designer to invade and conquer popular culture. Since Brooke Shields seductively uttered "nothing comes between me and my
Calvins" in a memorable advertising campaign in 1980, Klein's edgy ads have been the forefront of contemporary visual culture defining sexual limits, the spirit of the young, and cultural provocation. In design sensibility, austere, reductive, and modern, Klein's ubiquitous name is synonymous with fashion as media and mass culture.
Gaines, Steven and Sharon Churcher, Obsession: The Lives and
Times of Calvin Klein, New York, Birch Lane Press, 1994.