“I had a nervous breakdown": Kate Moss on famous Calvin Klein photoshoot

“There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do.”

An article published in News.com.au revealed model Kate Moss's true feelings about her 1992 Calvin Klein ad campaign with actor Mark Wahlberg. The ad campaign featured both Moss and Wahlberg topless in various sexualised poses. TV ads shows Moss walking around Mark Wahlberg as he grunts and makes comments about Calvin Klein and Moss's appearance.

Moss described the impact of filming the ads:

In a conversation with writer Glen O’Brien, Moss admitted that “I was such a nervous wreck” during the Calvin Klein shoot. “At the time he [Mark] was such a d**khead. He wasn’t very nice.”

I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts,” she has told Vanity Fair. “It didn’t feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die.

“I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘I’ll give you some Valium,’ and Francesca Sorrenti [her boyfriend’s mother], thank God, said, ‘You’re not taking that.’ It was just anxiety. Nobody takes care of you mentally.

“There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do.”

Read the full article here.

“But women choose to do this”

“I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, ... I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for 2 weeks. I thought I was going to die” - Kate Mosshttps://t.co/yMeewak3Ne #CalvinKlein #Inthebin

— Melinda (@MelLiszewski) November 3, 2019

Calvin Klein's history of sexual exploitation

We spoke out against a Calvin Klein ad campaign in 2010 due to connotations of gang rape. The ad, which featured a woman appearing to be over-powered by a number of men, featured on large billboards and was widely condemned by sexual assault workers and womens advocates. We encouraged supporters to write complaints to the Ad Standards Board which determined the ad to be in breach of the ad industry code of conduct.  

In 2016 we spoke out against another ad campaign depicting a young woman photographed from the vantage point of the ground between her legs. The "up-skirting" picture was captioned "I flash in #mycalvins."

Boycott Calvin Klein.   

See also: How Terry Richardson created porn ‘chic’ and moulded the look of an era