Calvin Klein has been desperate to work with Vanessa Paradis.

Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein

The 74-year-old fashion designer - who launched his eponymous label in 1968 - has admitted he has "always" wanted to team up with the 'Joe le Taxi' hitmaker and cast her in one of his campaigns because he felt she was "a little androgynous" and different to other models at the time.

Speaking to InStyle Online about the 44-year-old star, he said: "I always wanted to work with the French actress Vanessa Paradis. I wanted a different look than the supermodels everyone was using. To me, she was a little androgynous with a boyish kind of figure, but there was something so beautiful and sensual about her too."

And though the businessman had been name dropping to other notable figures in the industry, eh still didn't get to work with Vanessa, although he was approached by supermodel Kate Moss.

He explained: "I had been mentioning Vanessa's name to [photographer] Patrick Demarchelier, and then a few weeks later, he called and said, 'Calvin, someone else just came into my studio that you should see.' It was Kate Moss."

Calvin has recently launched his own book, named after himself, which features a variety of campaign imagery he has created throughout his career.

And the mogul has revealed creating the tome has been "enormously satisfying" for him.

Speaking about his latest venture, he said: "It's been an enormously satisfying experience to revisit all that I've created in one place. Throughout my career, I touched on so many different design areas, from clothes and beauty to underwear and denim. Yet from speaking at many universities, I realised people knew the name but they didn't always know exactly what I did. This book is an opportunity to tell my whole story, the story of my life."