CALVIN KLEIN SIGNS COLLABORATION WITH THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION

Calvin Klein, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PVH Corp, has inked a multi-year partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The global deal, effective through 2020, grants unprecedented access to the artist's works, including many unpublished ones, and will extend to various licensing projects across the Calvin Klein brand portfolio. Warhol, who died in 1987, is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. His Campbell's Soup cans and Brillo boxes, as well as his portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, John Lennon and Liza Minelli, are trans-generational icons that defined a very specific cultural period. “I am proud that through this licensing agreement with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Calvin Klein will be continuing its longstanding commitment to the celebration of American artists and their prolific work,” said Steve Shiffman, Chief Executive Officer, Calvin Klein, Inc. “I look forward to the global rollout of this partnership across multiple levels of the Calvin Klein consumer experience.” “I've come to realize that Warhol's genius goes much deeper than cheerful Campbell's Soup paintings,” said Raf Simons, Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein. “He captured all sides of the American experience, including sometimes its darker sides. Warhol's art tells more truths about this country than you can find almost anywhere else.” Michael Dayton Hermann, Director of Licensing at the Warhol Foundation, added that “Warhol's legacy is not limited to the tremendous influence of his timeless concepts but also through the work of the foundation he established, which has become one of the pre-eminent funders of contemporary art having distributed over $275 million in grants since inception,” he said. “We are proud that Raf's visionary work at Calvin Klein will unabashedly embrace all facets of Warhol's work and generously contribute to the foundation's endowment.” The first iteration of the partnership was unveiled in September 2017 at Simons' Spring 2018 Calvin Klein runway show. Various pieces, in fact, featured Warhol artworks as placement screen prints, perfectly mirroring the collection's inspirations of cinema, the dream factory of Hollywood and its depictions of both an American nightmare and the all-powerful American dream. Warhol's links to fashion date back to the Seventies when the artist befriended a fresh generation of New York designers that included Calvin Klein himself. Klein had set out to capture a new, truly American essence in his creations, a mantra that perfectly meshed with Warhol's own interests. Today, three decades later, Simons is renewing the relationship between the house of Calvin Klein and the greatest of American artists. Thanks to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Simons has been forging what he views as a deep, thoroughgoing collaboration with the undying genius of Warhol, built on the creative ideals that they share.