Calvin Klein underwear ad causes stir

NEW YORK — A new Calvin Klein underwear ad has caused a stir in America because it features a photo taken from underneath a woman’s skirt, focused on her crotch.

The photo is of a model named Klara Kristin, 23, who wears a cream-colored skirt and looks down at the floor-level camera.

The ad campaign features celebrities and the fill-in-the-blank slogan, “I _____ in #mycalvins.” Ms. Kristin’s has the�� word “flash.”

The photo triggered an outpouring of disgust and reproach on social media and elsewhere.

“Calvin Klein is marketing to perverts,” a headline in the New York Post screamed.

“@CalvinKlein, your ad sexualizes young girls. We’re #NotBuyingIt,” tweeted the account Miss Representation, part of the Representation Project, which says it works to fight stereotypes and social injustice.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation said the ad depicted a form of sexual harassment, “up-skirting” — the practice of taking shots up a woman’s skirt without her knowledge or consent.

The center launched a petition calling on the fashion house to “stop normalizing and glamorizing sexual harassment.”

But, as of Thursday afternoon, the photo remained on the Calvin Klein Twitter feed.

Calvin Klein ad campaigns are often sexy and sometimes feature models who look androgynous and are very young.

In 1981, the American actress Brooke Shields, then 16, posed in tight Calvin Klein jeans with her legs spread. She looked at the camera and said, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” — AFP