Calvin Klein’s ex-wife Kelly publishes retrospective photo book of fashion’s biggest names

Kelly Klein has been involved in the fashion industry from all aspects; firstly as a fashion student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York; formatively as a design assistant at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren – eventually marrying Klein himself – and subsequently, as a photographer.

Born Kelly Rector, Klein dabbled in modelling and showjumping before pursuing design, and became engaged to minimalist designer-of-the-moment, Calvin Klein, in 1986. They wed in Rome while they were on a buying trip in Italy, but separated 10 years later and divorced in 2006.

Calvin and Kelly Klein when they were happily married in 1989, New York City

Credit

: Rex Features

Klein has primarily worked as an art book producer over the years, but in the mid 1990s carved a niche as a fashion photographer, taking her camera with her on far-flung travels and enjoying commissions for international editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. And for the first time, she has produced a book all of her own by releasing a retrospective of photographs that document her endeavours behind the camera.

Starting out in the mid 90s meant that she was one of the first to shoot a young Kate Moss and a fresh-faced Gisele Bündchen.

Gisele Bundchen in Dominica, 1998

Credit

: Kelly Klein

“Hopefully my work shows how blessed I feel to have spent time with these remarkable people” Klein writes in the opening of her new tome, which is published by Rizzoli. “When I shoot them I try to apprehend their natural beauty, especially when it comes to supermodels—there’s something free, instinctive, and effortlessly charming in the way the girls look when they arrive on set, without makeup, just their everyday selves. That’s what I try to preserve. Even after hair and makeup, my job is to see their unrehearsed, natural uniqueness and translate the beauty of it, carry it over, into the final image.”

Klein never trained formally as a photographer, but cites watching how watching the “great practitioners” – Irving Penn, Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier – at work helped educate her.

Stella Tennant, New York City, 1999

Credit

: Kelly Klein

The foreword of Photographs by Kelly Klein is written by her friend, fellow New Yorker Aerin Lauder – the beauty businesswoman heiress of the Estee Lauder cosmetics company. The 45-year-old recalls seeing Klein, 58, for the first time in a restaurant in the Hamptons and their impression she made on her. In Lauder’s words, “she just glowed”.

She writes how: “This book is a portrait of her life in pictures. What makes it even more special is that she is a very private person, so it feels very open and generous of her to share it with us. Kelly has an amazing eye, and when something intrigues or inspires her, she reaches for her camera.

It makes perfect sense that she would be a photographer, because the impulse behind taking a picture is to cherish, to save, to preserve. Kelly portrays beauty in every aspect of her life.”