RAF SIMONS, the newly appointed chief creative officer of Calvin Klein, is a big fan of “Moonlight” — and to show his appreciation and love of the film, the Belgian designer reached out to the cast for a collaboration that keeps on giving.

    He selected Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders and 12-year-old Alex R. Hibbert and Oscar’s best supporting actor winner slash brand-new dad Mahershala Ali to star in the brand’s new underwear campaign. Added the designer of his decision, “It’s an acknowledgement of remarkable actors who are revealing something important of being a man today in what they do.”

    Creative director Pieter Mulier, who worked with Simons on his first denim campaign, noted that the campaign — which is a departure from previous, uber-sexy underwear ads starring hot young things like Justin Bieber and Lara Stone — is a new way of looking at the brand’s historic relationship with the concept of masculinity. “Since the beginning, Calvin Klein’s underwear imagery has always made big statements about masculinity; the performances of these actors in ‘Moonlight’ affected us deeply and made big statements about masculinity in a different way. Somehow we wanted to bring the two together.” Like the denim ads, the underwear campaign was also photographed by Willy Vanderperre.

    In a release, the brand emphasized the role of the actors’ various ages (ranging from 12 to 43) in that definition of manhood and the coming-of-age concept.

    In addition to Ali’s acting award, the film also picked up the best picture win (in what was easily the most memorable Oscars moment of all time) as well as the award for best adapted screenplay.(SD-Agencies)