The year was 2002, and Travis Fimmel's face (and body) was on billboards around the world. The golden-haired Aussie model had just locked in a six-figure deal with Calvin Klein to model for the fashion house for a year. To say the job changed Fimmel's life is an understatement.
READ MORE: Beloved Aussie chocolates set to double in price The 21-year-old fronted campaigns for the fashion house's Crave fragrance and starred on magazine covers, but it was his work modelling Calvin Klein underwear that really put him on the map. In fact, it's even been claimed his iconic ads inspired the character of Smith Jerrod – "the Absolut Vodka guy" who dates Samantha Jones and goes on to become an actor – in Sex and the City. Calvin Klein himself had been instrumental in securing Fimmel for the contract, and in an interview with fellow designer Tom Ford recalled how struck he was by him.
"I would get stacks and stacks of Polaroids, and then as soon as I came to Travis, I stopped and said, 'Who is he?'" he said. "They told me that he had just arrived in L.A.
from Australia, that he was a surfer, and I said, 'Do you think you can get him in here tomorrow?' "So he walks into my studio, into my office, and it was like drop-dead ...
his presence was jaw-dropping. I called Steven Klein right away and said, 'Don't do anything. Just put him in the underwear and put him up against the window'.
" READ MORE: 'Four months of hell': Huge challenge new mum didn't see coming While his Calvi.