Fashion icon Calvin Klein is building a seven-car garage at his oceanfront home in the Hamptons to house his boyfriend Nick Gruber‘s future collection of “classic muscle cars” — at least according to Gruber.
Things must be rosy between Klein, 68, and handsome blond Gruber, 21, who have been dating for a year, because the designer has added an additional six months of construction on the house in Southampton Village to build a bigger garage, even though Gruber admits he’s yet to start his car collection.
Gruber was overheard telling guests at the Armitage Gone! Dance gala at Capitale Thursday night that, because he wants to collect classic muscle cars, Klein is building a bigger garage — and that his decision to build one big enough for seven cars has set the whole project back by six months. Noting that Klein owns an 011 Bentley and a BMW, Gruber was heard to say that while he doesn’t own a car himself, he’d like a Pontiac GTO Judge and a Mustang.
A rep for Klein said: “This is not true. Construction is behind, but not because Calvin is enlarging the garage to house Nick’s collection. He is enlarging the garage because he has his own cars and his staff have cars.”
Sources tell us that despite the age gap, Klein and Gruber are inseparable. Spies at the gala said they looked happy mingling with Salman Rushdie, Julian Schnabel, Stephanie Seymour, Fran Lebowitz and Michele Gerber Klein. Klein recently threw a 21st-birthday bash for Gruber that was attended by Anna Wintour, Donna Karan and Alec Baldwin.
The house that originally stood on Klein’s Hamptons estate was built by the Du Pont family in 1926 and was famed for its gaudy excesses. It once featured a fully stocked shark tank and was dubbed “Disneyland on LSD” by locals. Klein bought the property in 2003 for $30 million, bulldozed it, and is replacing it with a sleek glass-and-concrete compound totaling 17,500 square feet. His original plans included a 1,500-square-foot attached garage.