#mycalvins launched before I arrived at Calvin Klein. The possessive hashtag and the campaign's foundational concept were already in market — and already generating cultural momentum. What I inherited was a strong idea that needed the infrastructure to scale: a global influencer program with strategic intent behind it, an owned social strategy with a distinct point of view, talent relationships managed at the level the campaign's ambition demanded, and a communications apparatus capable of extending campaign moments into sustained press cycles.
My leadership era ran from the Bieber campaign through the "I ___ in #mycalvins" iteration and on to the "Our Family. #MyCalvins" Kardashian-Jenner campaign under Raf Simons. Across that span, my role consistently transcended traditional communications scope. I was in the room for creative discussions — contributing to campaign direction, briefing, and copy — while also managing every talent relationship and negotiation personally, writing and producing all behind-the-scenes content with campaign talent, co-architecting the owned social strategy with the social team, building and leading the global influencer program, and working hand in hand with general counsel throughout.
Running parallel to all of it was a full corporate and brand communications mandate — one I built from scratch. Calvin Klein had no dedicated internal communications function before I arrived. I created it — establishing the infrastructure and practice that gave the organization a coherent internal voice for the first time. That function became the foundation for the PVH investor-facing brand narrative, internal alignment through major transitions, trade and retail partner communications, and the executive visibility strategy that gave Calvin Klein's leadership a credible public voice across business and fashion media simultaneously.
"This is probably the most distinctive vision for the brand that we've seen. The marketing all has a very similar feel and vibe — and that's something that has been missing for Calvin Klein." — Nivindya Sharma, Director of Retail Strategy & Insights, WGSN / Business of Fashion
I managed the Bieber talent relationship directly — briefing, negotiation, and all ongoing communication with his team throughout the campaign. I personally wrote and produced all behind-the-scenes interviews and content, material that generated its own earned media cycle distinct from the campaign imagery and ran across entertainment, fashion, and pop culture verticals simultaneously. When his post generated 145,000+ retweets, the global press surge was managed through an earned media infrastructure built to absorb speed at scale: fashion press (Vogue, WWD, Dazed), entertainment media, and mainstream news all covered the moment, extending what could have been a 24-hour spike into a weeks-long brand story.
I built and led the global influencer program that became the structural engine of #mycalvins — a strategically designed system intended to generate culturally credible, platform-native content at scale, not conventional media placements. What distinguished it was what happened next: influencer partners my team had activated were cast directly into the brand's global paid campaigns. They sat front row at Calvin Klein runway shows. They participated in brand events around the world. Calvin Klein was among the first major fashion brands to operate this model at scale — the line between influencer partner and campaign talent effectively ceased to exist. The earned media implications were significant: campaign coverage in Vogue, Highsnobiety, Refinery29, The Cut, and WWD consistently featured the same names that had started as influencer partners, creating a coherent press narrative about a brand that had developed genuine cultural relationships rather than transactional ones.
My involvement deepened across every dimension at once. I was in the room for creative discussions around the campaign's direction and copy framework. I managed every talent relationship and negotiation in direct partnership with general counsel. I wrote and conducted all behind-the-scenes interviews and content personally — with FKA twigs, Kendall Jenner, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Margot Robbie, Kate Moss, Grace Coddington, David Blaine, and Bella Hadid — content that generated press in Vogue, Dazed, Refinery29, and i-D distinct from the campaign imagery. The earned media program ran across global fashion, culture, and entertainment press simultaneously in every major market. The trade and retail communications program ran in parallel — briefing buyers and wholesale accounts on the campaign's commercial context, with 440,000+ organic user posts already a genuine retail-facing asset.
A single campaign image triggered a significant media criticism cycle — ABC News, Adweek, and major fashion publications leading. Because I had managed the talent contract in direct partnership with general counsel, I led a response with full legal and strategic awareness from the start. The communications decision — no retraction, no apology, disciplined "no comment" posture — was made with legal confidence and grounded in a clear understanding of Calvin Klein's 40-year advertising legacy. Internally, the organization needed to be aligned and calm; externally, the brand needed to hold its position without amplifying the story. Both required active management. Platform growth continued uninterrupted. The story receded within weeks without material impact on campaign performance, brand standing, or retail partner confidence.
The appointment of Raf Simons as CCO was a corporate communications event as much as a creative one — requiring simultaneous management across PVH investor narrative, internal organization alignment, trade and retail partner communications, and global earned media. I was part of the internal leadership team managing that transition: the departure framing for Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli, the announcement strategy for Simons, and the sustained narrative work that framed the new creative direction as evolution rather than disruption. Ensuring Calvin Klein's leadership spoke with a consistent, confident voice across business media and fashion media simultaneously — at a moment when any inconsistency would have been amplified — was among the most demanding spokesperson strategy work of my tenure.
The campaign series that culminated in the Kardashian-Jenner shoot — Kim, Kourtney, Khloé (visibly pregnant), Kendall, and Kylie (strategically concealed under the campaign's signature Americana quilt), shot by Willy Vanderperre in Thousand Oaks — was the fullest expression of everything the program had built. I managed talent relationships and negotiations across the full series, produced all behind-the-scenes content, and ran the global influencer program alongside it. The Kardashian-Jenner chapter became one of the most-covered pop culture moments of early 2018 — driven in part by Kylie's concealed pregnancy — generating press across entertainment, mainstream news, and celebrity outlets that no paid media buy could have replicated. Total posts reached 884K+ and nearly 600 million social engagements across the campaign's run.
Running parallel to the campaign work was a full corporate and brand communications mandate — managing the institutional narrative around Calvin Klein's cultural momentum across investors, internal stakeholders, retail partners, and the executive team simultaneously. This is the work that rarely appears in campaign case studies and rarely gets credited. It is also the work that determines whether campaign success translates into lasting brand equity or remains an isolated moment.
Calvin Klein operated within PVH Corp., a publicly traded company where brand communications had direct investor implications. My work included developing and maintaining the brand narrative that connected #mycalvins' cultural reach — the engagement numbers, the UGC volume, the press coverage — to the commercial brand equity story PVH needed to tell investors and analysts. When the brand reported +9% projected revenue growth in FY 2017 and $943M in Q3 sales, those results were built on years of consistent, credible brand momentum management. The cultural story and the commercial story were the same story, told in different registers for different audiences.
Calvin Klein had no dedicated internal communications function before I arrived. I built it from the ground up — establishing the infrastructure, cadence, and practice that gave the organization a coherent internal voice for the first time. That foundation proved essential when the Raf Simons appointment created the most significant organizational transition in the brand's modern history. Replacing two long-tenured creative directors with a single CCO carrying complete creative authority required an internal communications function that could move quickly, speak credibly, and hold the organization steady. It required a function that had already been built and trusted.
Calvin Klein's commercial success depended on the confidence of retail and wholesale partners whose buying decisions were shaped as much by brand momentum as by product. The trade and retail communications program I ran translated campaign cultural reach into commercial language: briefing major retail accounts on campaign strategy, providing partners with the data and narrative to support sell-in decisions, and managing the communication of brand evolution through the Simons creative transition in a way that maintained retail confidence. When 440,000+ organic user posts and 592.8M social engagements became part of the commercial brief to wholesale partners, the brand's cultural investment became a tangible commercial asset.
Calvin Klein's executive communications required a spokesperson strategy operating across two distinct media environments simultaneously: the fashion and culture press covering #mycalvins and the Simons transition, and the business and trade press covering PVH's commercial performance. Different voices, different narratives, different media relationships — but pointing back to the same brand story. I developed and managed the executive visibility program that kept the brand's commercial and cultural narratives reinforcing each other rather than creating confusion in the market.
In May 2016, a single image from the Spring campaign triggered a significant media criticism cycle. ABC News, Adweek, and multiple major fashion publications led with the story. The brand was being called exploitative in the same news cycle that had been celebrating its cultural reach — a tension that required simultaneous management across press, internal stakeholders, and retail partners.
Because I had managed the talent relationship and contract in direct partnership with general counsel, I was positioned to lead a response that was legally sound, strategically coherent, and organizationally aligned from the start. The outcome — no retraction, no apology, no material impact on campaign performance, retail confidence, or brand standing — was the result of a crisis apparatus that had been built before it was needed.
"The most effective crisis response is the one that never feels like a crisis response. You hold the position, let the brand's history do the work, and get out of the way of the story you don't want to tell." — Alex Wagner
#mycalvins was already in motion when I arrived. What I brought to it was the infrastructure the campaign needed to reach its potential: a globally scaled influencer program with genuine strategic intent, talent relationships managed at the depth the work demanded, content that made those relationships press-worthy, an owned social strategy with a distinct brand voice, a corporate communications function that connected every campaign moment to the brand's commercial and investor narrative, and a crisis apparatus that was operational before it was needed. The measure of that contribution is not any single moment. It's that influencer partners became campaign talent. That retail partners and PVH investors had a consistent brand story through the most significant creative transition in the brand's history. That a crisis receded without a retraction. And that nearly a decade later, the model Calvin Klein helped pioneer — treating influencer as casting, not media — is now how the industry operates. At Calvin Klein, during these years, it was new.