“The House of Klein: Fashion, Controversy and a Business Obsession,” by Lisa Marsh (John Wiley & Sons, 232 pages, $24.95)

Rewind your memory 18 years to the 1985 movie “Back to the Future.”

Recall the scene where time wanderer Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is told by Lorraine (Lea Thompson), the teen-ager who was to became his mother, “I’ve never seen red underwear before, Calvin.”

Marty is puzzled. “Calvin? Why are you calling me Calvin?”

“Well, isn’t that your name – Calvin Klein? It’s written in your underwear.”

Business and fashion writer Lisa Marsh reminds readers of that cinematic moment in her new book, “The House of Klein,” to underscore the extent to which the Calvin Klein brand insinuated itself into the consciousness of American consumers in the 1980s.

Marsh’s reprise of Calvin Klein’s entry into the men’s and women’s underwear markets and the company’s resounding success in licensing its brand in those areas speaks volumes about both how that company operated and about the fashion industry generally.

Before he took the plunge into underwear, Klein had, of course, already become a fashion phenomenon in women’s and men’s high fashion, sportswear and jeans. Daring ads featuring actress Brooke Shields had played a prominent role in the success of Calvin Klein jeans, Marsh points out.

“Perhaps the reason nothing came between Brooke Shields and her jeans was simple – Calvin Klein underwear didn’t exist,” Marsh writes.

Klein, however, was determined to do something about that.

“The sex, drugs, and disco environment Klein was living in glorified well-toned bodies, both male and female. While nudity was all around the Studio 54 scene, Klein believed bodies looked better when something was left to the imagination – he preferred underwear,” Marsh writes.

The success of Jockey’s advertising campaign, using Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer as the model for its briefs, spurred Klein into action, Marsh writes. Klein’s company began selling briefs, boxer shorts, bikinis and T-shirts in Bloomingdale’s in 1982. Although Calvin Klein underwear cost more than others, including Bloomingdale’s brand, Jockey and Yves St. Laurent, the Calvin Klein underwear sold faster, Marsh writes.

“The Calvin Klein brand had enough clout to succeed in doing the impossible – getting the American male to care about the brand of something few see. It also established a base price point for the designer’s wares that was affordable to many. When you wanted to be a part of the Calvin Klein lifestyle, three for $14.50 is slightly easier on the wallet than $40 jeans,” Marsh writes.

The ads featured a muscular former Olympic athlete wearing nothing but a pair of briefs, with a play of light and shadow suggesting what was inside the underwear, Marsh points out, which gave sales a major boost.

“For the first time in Calvin Klein history, its advertisements inspired crime. The underwear ads were so popular that over 50 bus shelters containing the ads were broken into and the posters were stolen,” Marsh writes.

The craze for Klein underwear for men received another major boost when his company hired rapper Marky Mark, who was famous for dropping his pants and showing his briefs during performances, to model it.

When Klein turned his attention to women, Marsh writes, he created underwear that resembled men’s, “some complete with a functional fly.” The advertising was even more provocative, and sales went through the roof.

Marsh traces Klein’s story from his origins in the Mosholu Parkway section of the Bronx through his apprenticeships in various companies in the garment industry; his decision to form his own company with his longtime friend from the Bronx; his first big break, with Bonwit Teller; the successes in women’s fashions, menswear, jeans and fragrances; and the ultimate sale of his and Schwarz’s company to Phillips-Van Heusen this year.

Marsh loads her narrative with the dollars and cents of every major licensing agreement as she traces the growth of Klein from a fledgling startup in the garment district to an international company with branches in Europe and Asia.

In doing so, Marsh explains much about how the fashion industry functions. Her purpose appears to be, in part, to dispel the myth that the fashion industry is all about artistic endeavor. Successful designer houses like Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, she maintains, have shown that design is a small factor in the fashion business.

“These businesses draw breath from things like the marketing and positioning of the company’s image, shrewd partnerships with retailers, regular support from the fashion press and above all, astute business management who can see beyond the hype,” Marsh writes.

That is sufficient reason for those whom Marsh refers to as “garmentistas,” those who are in the fashion business or simply have an insatiable appetite for information about fashions, to read “The House of Klein.”

Marsh teases general readers, however, with suggestions that they will find out more than they already know about Calvin Klein himself. In that respect, she promises more than she delivers. She mentions, for example, the rumors about Klein’s sexuality without offering any evidence to counter or support them.

Much space is devoted to the sexual emphasis in the ads for Klein underwear, fragrances and jeans, particularly to its androgynous images and its use of children in sexually suggestive contexts.

While the Justice Department was investigating the company’s use of child models in a suggestive way, then-President Clinton, according to Marsh, told a gathering in Denver: “Those children were my daughter’s age that were in those ads, and they were outrageous. It was wrong. It was wrong to manipulate those children and use them for commercial benefit.”

Those controversial ads, Marsh Points out, sold cK jeans. The copious material on sex and nudity in Calvin Klein advertising could sell this business book.

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(c) 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-10-02-03 0624EDT