Calvin Klein

Background

The man behind the brand, Calvin Richard Klein, was born on November 19, 1942, to a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City. His father, Leo Klein, was a Hungarian immigrant, and his mother, Flore, was a second-generation Ukrainian-American. Klein, whose zodiac sign is a Scorpio, grew up learning how to sew from his mother, who was fashion-obsessive. He graduated from the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan in 1960, and in 1963, he graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in Fine Arts. Calvin Klein ruled the fashion world for decades. From runway events to underwear and perfumes, the company dominated every sector.

Klein’s first job in the fashion world was dressmaking, but he grew dissatisfied with the work and quit after his boss refused to grant him a $100 raise. His second employment was as a sketcher for coat designer Dan Millstein. Klein learned a lot from Millstein, who took him to haute couture shows in Paris and had him copy clothes patterns. Klein traveled to Hallford Ltd., another coat-making company specializing in synthetic fur, in search of more. But he quickly became tired of this employment as well, and in 1968, he formed Calvin Klein Inc. with childhood buddy Barry Schwartz. The duo grossed a million dollars in their first year of business, thanks to advertisements in “The New York Times.” In 1969, Klein’s designs got featured in “Vogue,” and in 1970, he held his first fashion show on a modest budget of $10,000. It was a huge success; by 1975, Klein’s revenues totaled $17 million.

In the 1980s, he took his brand to television. Klein hired 15-year-old Brooke Shields, who had recently completed a shoot for “Vogue,” to model his range of jeans. The advertising was widely banned by television networks, but the controversy benefited Klein, as royalties increased from $1.2 million in 1978 to $12.5 million in 1980. In 1982, he developed the legendary Calvin Klein underwear line with a $500,000 advertising campaign that profoundly altered the fashion business. Klein would make an even greater splash a decade later when he featured Mark Wahlberg and Kate Moss in billboard photographs and T.V. commercials to promote his new underwear line. Calvin Klein was a global fashion industry behemoth by 1999, with operations in America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Klein and Schwartz revealed their intention to sell the company, which took three years to execute. Klein stayed on in a creative adviser role at first but eventually left the organization.