Calvin Klein casts Jude Bellingham in its Icon Cotton Stretch underwear campaign, shot in Madrid after the World Cup

Key Takeaways

• Calvin Klein launched its Icon Cotton Stretch underwear campaign globally on 2 November 2026, starring England and Real Madrid footballer Jude Bellingham in his debut for the brand.

• Oliver Hadlee Pearch photographed and directed the campaign in Madrid in August, with pared-back imagery that nods to Bellingham's signature on-pitch celebrations.

• Bellingham debuts the new Icon Cotton Stretch Shine Trunk, which gives the Infinity Bond logo waistband a shine finish, alongside the Boxer Brief, Low Rise Trunk, Hip Brief and Slim Boxer.

• The campaign runs in Calvin Klein stores, on calvinklein.com, across social platforms and on out-of-home sites.

Calvin Klein has launched its Icon Cotton Stretch underwear campaign with Jude Bellingham, giving the England and Real Madrid midfielder his debut for the brand and a place in a line of advertising that began in the 1980s with Olympic pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus and has since featured Mark Wahlberg and Shawn Mendes. The campaign went live worldwide on the 2nd November under the idea of "the icon underneath", asking a 23-year-old with a very public summer behind him to stand for something far more private: feeling comfortable in himself.

The campaign follows a summer in which Bellingham scored seven goals at the World Cup and became the only England men's player to reach that total at a major tournament, signing off with a solo stoppage time goal in the 6-4 win over France that secured third place. Calvin Klein shot the campaign the following month in Madrid, so the pictures were made within weeks of the tournament and in the city where he plays his club football.

Calvin Klein's Icon Cotton Stretch campaign with Jude Bellingham launches a new Shine Trunk in Madrid-shot imagery

Oliver Hadlee Pearch photographed and directed the campaign, which pairs pared-back images with a campaign video in which Bellingham moves from a white tank and jeans down to his underwear before delivering the line "What matters most is the icon underneath." Among the images is a nod to his signature celebrations on the pitch, keeping his day job in view at a moment when the kit has been firmly left in the changing room.

The new product here is the Icon Cotton Stretch Shine Trunk, which updates the Infinity Bond logo waistband with a shine finish, while Bellingham also wears the Boxer Brief, Low Rise Trunk, Hip Brief and Slim Boxer. All styles are now using a soft cotton stretch blend, with the line being sold as extra comfort, support, and a flexible fit. The campaign appears in Calvin Klein stores, on calvinklein.com, and across social platforms, with high-impact out-of-home placements that extend it beyond the brand's own channels.

"I really enjoyed working on this campaign," Bellingham said in the announcement, adding that the concept appealed to him as a way to talk about confidence. He said, "I liked the idea of 'the icon underneath' – that confidence starts with feeling comfortable in yourself." He added, "Calvin Klein is such an iconic brand, so it was great to bring that idea to life in my own way." That language echoes Calvin Klein's Perfectly Fit Custom Lift bra campaign with Teyana Taylor, which, in September, paired a product story about fit with a message about confidence and comfort, and also cast someone whose career is built on physical expression.

Calvin Klein follows Bad Bunny and Raphinha by placing Jude Bellingham at the centre of its 1990s reset

Bellingham arrives while parent company PVH is rebuilding Calvin Klein around its 1990s identity, a plan chief executive Stefan Larsson set out on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call this spring when he said, "We have gone back to the DNA of what made Calvin collide with culture back in the 1990s," with demand concentrated in underwear and denim. He also said, "The consumer is looking for iconic Calvin, starting with iconic underwear and iconic denim," and the word icon now does a lot of work in the brand's copy. The Hulu series "Love Story" has fed the same interest in the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy era, and Larsson said the brand is targeting Gen Z and younger millennials, especially shoppers driven by style and status, because "They shop more often, they spend more, and they're more loyal."

Underwear casting has become one of the clearest measures of that plan, since Bad Bunny fronted the same Icon Cotton Stretch line in March 2025 in a campaign shot in Puerto Rico. Larsson later said on an earnings call that the Icon Cotton Stretch launch, amplified by Bad Bunny and Rosalía, grew 20% in men's and 13% in women's during 2025, pushing the broader underwear business up by low single digits from the previous year.

Bellingham himself is no newcomer to this category, having fronted a Skims underwear campaign in June 2024, days before England opened Euro 2024 against Serbia, under the tagline "The best in football meets the best of underwear." In that film, he performed football tricks and announced that "Everybody's wearing Skims", so the football was front and centre and the tournament was still to come.