Calvin Klein underwear has been a consistent hit for the past 25 years, with no signs of abating – sales of womenswear are also on the up. Why do we love the branded waistband so much?

Mark Wahlberg, Djimon Hounsou and Justin Bieber for Calvin Klein

 for The Guardian

Stealth wealth is a noble idea, but as Calvin Klein – the American designer who turned underwear into a status symbol, and by proxy, its wearers into sex symbols – once said: “The only way to advertise is by not focusing on the product.” And lo, the logoed underwear was born.

Klein didn’t invent it it, but he certainly owned it, and never has the season-by-season rhythm of fashion been so tested than it has been by Calvin Klein’s perennially popular underwear which, according to Selfridges, has been a consistent bestseller for the last 25 years that shows no signs of abating.

Jo Hunt, head of buying for womenswear at Asos, says it has seen “a rise in the branded slogan or logo, or ‘slogo’” over the past 18 months, and cites Calvin Klein (among other “authentic American brands”) as key to this shift. And in high fashion, an entire photoshoot in the current issue of Vogue stars Mica Arganaraz in a pair of Calvin Klein pants.

Thongs, boxers, briefs, going commando; they’ve all come and gone like whispers, but Calvins, briefs and boxers, and now bras and swimwear in womenswear, remain the resolute king of underwear.

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The rise and rise of Calvin Klein underwear