When Brooke Shields was just 15 years old, she landed a modeling job that launched her career. The job was for Calvin Klein, and it was the only time, until recently, that she modeled jeans.

The commercial was controversial at the time for its message “Nothing comes between her and her Calvins.” Decades later, Shields shared that she did’t know at the time that the script for the commercial had a sexual reference. She described her childhood as “sheltered.”

Denim has used sexuality in advertisements since it became a popular clothing item for fashion and not just workwear. Marilyn Monroe was the first woman to wear jeans in a movie. Later, Elvis Presley, James Dean and Marlon Brando chose to wear denim to go with their bad boy image.

More recently, denim ads haven’t just been focusing on sexuality but also on body positivity. For example, in 2021 Diesel released a commercial featuring people of multiple backgrounds wearing loose fitting denim while reuniting after being separated due to the pandemic.

More than 40 years after Shields’ iconic ads for Calvin Klein, she has been given the privilege to model jeans once again, and that’s exactly how she sees it – as a “privilege.” At age 57, Shields explained, “It’s such an honor to be my age and be represented. I feel the magnitude of it more. There’s a knowledge that comes with age, and this feels less like a job and more like a privilege.”

This time, the jeans Shields is wearing are not made by Calvin Klein but by Jordache. Shields models multiple types of jeans including straight cut, skinny and flare. The campaign also features Shields in a variety of poses, including poses where she’s topless.

Shields feels that the photos are empowering and in good taste. She explained to PEOPLE, “There’s something about owning your sexuality at this age that is on point for where we are today. It’s not angry empowerment.”

In preparation for the photo shoot, Shields worked out with her trainer, Ngo Okafor. She wanted to make sure she looked her best so that she was happy with the photos. She explained, “I pushed it to the limit. My ego helped! I thought, ‘If you do these pictures and you are not happy with what you see, you’ll be hard on yourself.'”

While Shields wanted to make sure that she was happy with the photos, she did not want to resort to the use of photo editing software to alter them. She said, “It was important for you to see this is my 56-year-old body and to fight the retouching.” She said she wanted to “keep it honest.”

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Did you know that Shields was only 15 when she posed in jeans for Calvin Klein? Does it surprise you that she appreciates the opportunity to model jeans in her 50s more than she did in her teens?