Calvin Klein Is Missing Its Carolyn Bessette Kennedy Moment

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1:54That's what we do in the 4 o 'clock hour. Yeah. tons of stories written about the FX and Hulu limited streaming series. It's called love story. John F. Kennedy jr. And Carolyn Bessette audiences have streamed around 25 million hours of the series as of March 4th, according to a spokesman for FX and Hulu. And that does include me and our producer Talia. And yeah, probably a lot more in the newsroom.

2:40John, I want to introduce you to Carolyn Bessette.

2:47Carolyn, this is John Kennedy. Yes, indeed. Yes, it is JFK Jr. Well, an actor at least playing him. For those who are listening on radio, it's just the trailer from, as we said, Love Story. It is an FX and Hulu limited series. And I got to say that as a result of this, first of all, I have read so much stuff on social media, so many articles, you know. Your algorithm is a lot different than mine. What? Your algorithm is a lot different than mine. But it's about the fashion. Because this is the only thing I've read on you, is this Bloomberg News story. This is called Yin and Yang, Mars and Venus.

3:26Let me put this out there. Searches for Calvin Klein 90s shut up on Google Trends, and the RealReal saw searches for Calvin Klein spike after the premiere of the series. It's customers looking to basically find that iconic style of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. And she really did have a very distinct style. It was very clean. It was beige. It was gray. It was black. It was very clean, very simple. And what's interesting is if you head to a Calvin Klein store, you're not going to see this stuff, which has some asking, did the company miss an opportunity? Writing that story for Bloomberg Businessweek is Dina Katgara, Bloomberg News consumer reporter.

4:05She joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. So what was the connection or lack thereof between the series and Calvin Klein in the real world right now? And how did Calvin Klein, at least according to some critics, miss this opportunity? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I went down to the store and talked to some people that were shopping and they encountered windbreakers, purples, color block windbreakers, and things that really didn't, they felt, match up with what they were searching for in the show to try to look like who they call CBK. in social media short term. And, you know, Calvin Klein's trying to become more of a premium brand again, but they're kind of missing the mark.

4:46They came back to the runway after six years, but their collection was kind of 70s and 80s, kind of missing that 90s mark. Yeah, I mean, if you go back, I mean, and Dina, I think this was something that certainly the series does, but you go back a few years, and I think in the series, I saw the episode, I think it was the first episode, where they're Annette Bening, They're dressing in at Benning and Carolyn Bissette comes in and gives her a blazer and it's like perfect. But Calvin Klein is there too because celebrities dressed in a lot of Calvin Klein that era. It was really iconic. But it's not like it's a Calvin Klein owned business.

5:25It's under a bigger conglomerate now. Yes, correct. It's owned by PVH, which also owns Tommy Hilfiger. Yeah. And Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger make up most of the brand's revenue. And they've been seeing kind of stagnant, stagnant sales. So this could have really been a moment for them to turn that around if they capitalized on it correctly. From a fashion perspective, though, and I mean, both of you jump in here because like I haven't, you know, from what I've seen of the show, is that actually popular again? Or would Calvin Klein be taking a risk by saying, we think just because this show is out, people will buy this stuff?

6:04Like, is that 90s look back? Definitely. Definitely. It is such a clean. This was a big mistake. It's such a clean classic look, right? Like, no doubt about it. Yeah. And they're looking for it. And they're still getting it from going to the actual products themselves. They're going to the RealReal. You know, that website where you can find these actual older pieces of fashion. They want to really be Carolyn Bessette. And Calvin Klein's not giving that to them. Well, and what's interesting is the connection is she worked for Calvin Klein, right? I mean, you know, one of the things that they keep showing is this, you know, Prada camel belted coat that she wore and was seen, you know, photographed in a lot of times, Walking the Dog or with John F.

6:50Kennedy Jr. Jr. Like camel skirts. And, you know, so it's it's not like all she wore was Calvin Klein. But the aesthetic at that time when she did, it was very clean and classic. Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, you see her working in the offices there. I mean, there's a scene in the show where she like handpicks Kate Moss out of a stack of different models. And, you know, at the store, Calvin Klein does have these sweatshirts with photos of Kate Moss line. But the girls going there don't want to wear Kate Moss. They want to like look like her, you know? Right. Exactly. And Kate Moss, if you think about, you know, she became so connected with the brand, the perfume, everything that was around it.

7:30I mean, it was an era where, you know, you think about fashion, right? There's just certain different decades where somebody really dominates and he was certainly one of it. But you do wonder, you know, I don't know whether they didn't know the movie or the series was coming, not the movie, but the streaming series was coming and they just didn't do more with it. Yeah. But even then, I mean, 90s fashion has been big overall. See, Tim, sorry on TV, but you're looking at Carolyn Bessette Kennedy or the actress who played her and she's like black turtleneck. This is from the streaming series, Love Story.

8:03And so it's just clean. It's classic. It's not. I want the hat that he was wearing all the time. Yeah. A lot of the men are trying to emulate JFK Jr.'s fashion as well. I mean, like he wrote a bike around Manhattan. He wore this like backwards, I don't even know what it is, like newspaper boy hat. People are loving it. It's all over social media. And there are some brands that are capitalizing on it, you know, in good ways. Like she has this headband she wears. It's like a thick headband. Girls are swarming to this apothecary downtown Manhattan called CO Bigelow, which has seen the most sales of hair accessories in its 188 year history.

8:42All right. Also, no offense, but that's also iconic, that apothecary to New York City. It's a great place to get lost in. No, it's just interesting how, you know, we talk about art, culture, you know, really affecting kind of what people want to wear, what they want to buy and stuff. And this is certainly interesting. And it's, you know, as you say, maybe a missed opportunity for the Calvin Klein brand, but The brand is different and yeah, it's just a different time and era. Good stuff. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Joining us here in studio, of course, is Dina Kekera, who wrote the story for Bloomberg Business Week.

9:18You can find it on the Bloomberg and at Bloomberg.com.

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