It’s a bare market.
On Monday morning, Calvin Klein dropped its steamy new ad campaign, which stars World Cup hero Jude Bellingham in some tiny white underwear and a ton of glistening body oil.
Seconds later, its parent company, PVH, saw a 4 percent stock bump.
Like libido levels across Manhattan, the PVH stock continued to rise throughout the week, hitting a 6.14% jump on Wednesday night — just as Mara Siegler revealed in Page Six that Bellingham’s buff billboard on Houston St. was causing literal traffic jams in downtown New York.
The drool-inducing images were shot in Madrid in by Oliver Hadlee Pearch, a British artist and music video director who has also created campaigns for Hailey Bieber at Rhode and Pharrell at Louis Vuitton.
Paired with the tagline “the icon underneath,” they feature a mound of underwear styles, including boxer briefs, trunks, hipster briefs and skinny boxer shorts, all worn with the most coveted of accessories: a sculpted, gleaming eight-pack.
Like Bellingham’s physique, the timing of this campaign is immaculate. Calvin Klein was most recently in the news for losing its creative director, Veronica Leoni, whose recent collections were, to put it plainly, damn good. And to add insult to injured egos, revenue was down, too — about $913 million from $980 last year.
But fashion loves a good comeback story, and Bellingham is a master of them:
In 2024, The Post hailed his “stunning” bicycle goal, which saved the British team from near-certain defeat in the European championships. During this year’s World Cup, his seven goals helped keep the UK in the tournament until the bitter end. And just last night, the 23-year-old helped his team, Real Madrid, beat Athens with one last goal for a nail-biting win in Greece.
Can the British athlete continue his winning streak by streaking for Calvin Klein?
The odds are good — and the goods, of course, are hot.
On Calvin Klein’s TikTok channel alone, Bellingham’s ads have been viewed by over 128 million people.
Some brief — or boxer-brief — context for that number:
Bellingham’s homeland, the United Kingdom, only has 70 million people total.
