Mitchell Slaggert: A Country Boy Becomes the Face of Calvin Klein Underwear
On his first trip to New York, the newbie model recalls meeting Kendall Jenner and getting scouted by Jennifer Lawrence's agent.
The model was in Lower Manhattan for a shoot and was basking in his newfound notoriety. The day before he had been the hit of Calvin Klein’s presentation during during NYFW: Menswear. Shirtless in nothing but tight gold metallic pants, he had gamely posed in the tableaux designer Italo Zuccheli conceived for the occasion as editors and other fashion groupies strained to take his picture.
Growing up in Georgia, Slaggert wanted to join the U.S. Marines. But a car accident when he was seven left him with one kidney and he couldn’t enlist. He was this close to joining Homeland Security – its job interview was much more stressful than any modeling casting call, he said – when he was spotted walking around downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was studying mechanical engineering at the University of North Carolina.
As Slaggert walked out of the World Trade Center in his tight jeans, he stopped to look at some Steven Klein portraits of Kate Moss flanking the walls. “Do you know who this is?” I asked. Slaggert scratched his head.
“Nope.”
