Legendary design house Calvin Klein’s 40th anniversary party took place at the High Line in New York City on September 7, 2008.  The party drew numerous celebrities–including Halle Berry, Eva Mendes, Kimora Lee Simmons, Claire Danes, Leighton Meester, Natasha Bedingfield, Naomi Watts, Paula Patton, Estelle, Rosario Dawson–and was held in a remarkable setting, at New York City’s High Line in a structure specially designed by John Pawson with a light installation by artist James Turrell.

New York’s High Line has traveled from freight rail to potential public park (I think I can, I think I can…) in the past eight decades, but it’s most surprising use came on Sunday night when it hosted Calvin Klein’s 40th anniversary party. Three stories into the open air over Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, the long field of weeds that has overtaken the more typical New York asphalt landscape greeted the fashion elite and red carpet celebrities including David Schwimmer and Kevin Bacon.

Calvin Klein, the legendary design company, celebrated its anniversary with the week’s must-go party thrown on the West-side freight rail line that closed in 1980 and has since been the terrain of urban explorers and preservationists. The southern leg of the line is set to open by the year’s end as an aerial park, and a second leg will follow in 2009. But the future of the third leg, where Calvin Klein assembled the fashion world’s elite on Sunday night, remains unsure as developers wrangle with economics.

The rail line was built in the 1930s as a Robert Moses project, running roughly from the Javits Center to Canal Street. It’s now a weedy patch of rail tracks that is often unnoticed from the street.

[…]

The enticing outdoors seemed to lure guests away from James Turrell, the famous light artist whose “Two Blues 2008” installation was on view in a building specially constructed for the occasion. Mr. Turrell was intended to be a highlight of the seminal party with his instillation — a large rectangular blue light whose depths appear infinite. But the artist seemed unsure of the whole scene. “I don’t know, actually,” he said, when I asked how his collaboration with Calvin Klein came about. Then he looked around at the handful of people chatting in front of his art, and wondered, “I thought I was coming to a fashion thing.” He left a half-hour later, but Francisco Costa, Calvin Klein’s designer, raved, ”He is magical…spiritual. I just want to jump in” to his light installation.

Source: Calvin Klein’s High Line

Photo credit:  Top photo: Halle Berry, Getty Images North America; Photos 2, 3 Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan; remaining photos Getty Images North America



Calvin Klein 40th anniversary tribute video

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Halle Berry

Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubrey

Eva Mendes

Kimora Lee Simmons

Estelle

Rosario Dawson

Claire Danes

Paula Patton

Leighton Meester

Joy Bryant

Natasha Beddingfield

Zoe Saldana

Naomi Watts

Video & Photos: Calvin Klein 40th Anniversary Party at the High Line 9-7-08 - pics - pictures