Calvin Klein Really Wanted to Hire David Beckham as an Underwear Model

What got between David Beckham and Calvin? Market research.

In the latest issue of Interview Magazine, Marc Jacobs talks to Calvin Klein about everything from his relationships with the various models he's cast in campaigns over the years to what it was like having a house on Fire Island in the '70s. But perhaps the most interesting part of the piece has to do with how Beckham almost ended up opposite Natalia Vodianova in one of Klein's underwear campaigns.

"The guy we used for those ads with Natalia was an athlete," Klein said. "We had discussions with David's people and they said, 'You can have him for the rest of the world, but you can't have the UK because he's too popular.' I said, 'We do business in the UK. What am I supposed to do there? Use someone else?' So that was a no. They weren't ready. So we got this other guy instead."



When Jacobs commented that "this other guy" looked great in the campaign, Klein said, "When you put Natalia with someone else, it just makes it. She's incredible."

The other guy was Beckham's fellow soccer player Fredrik Ljungberg, whom Klein must have thought was at least a little incredible on his own. Ljungberg ended up modeling for Calvin Klein from 2003 to 2007. Beckham, of course, made out OK in the world of underwear modeling. After appearing opposite his wife, Victoria, in an Armani underwear campaign, Beckham now stars in ads for his own line of personal furnishings for H&M.