Published: 2022-12-12 ǀ Updated: 2024-07-12
Calvin Klein Biography
The american fashion designer Calvin Richard Klein (* November 19, 1942, in the Bronx, New York City) is known primarily for underwear and clothing such as suits and coats, but shoes, accessories, perfume, cosmetics, and jewelry are also part of the brand's assortment. Characteristic are always simple-puristic, timeless-modern designs with clean lines in discreet monochrome fabrics.
Vita
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1963
CK graduates from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea in fashion design.
Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea -
1968
After working for fashion houses in Manhattan for a few years, the designer founded Calvin Klein together with his school friend Barry K. Schwartz.
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1968
He presents his first collection for women. The first orders from the fashion houses Bonwit Teller and Macy's followed.
Calvin Klein Coat 1968 Gift of Sheryl and Barry K. Schwartz -
1973
Klein received his first Coty Award for his collection. Others followed in 1974 and 1975, making him the first designer to win the award three times in a row for a women's collection.
Coty Award -
1970s and 1990s
Since the end of the decade, the company grants licenses for perfumes, accessories, and, since the 1990s, watches.
Calvin Klein perfumes, accessories, and watches -
1982
Klein founds the Calvin Klein Underwear division, which was marketed to a young target group thanks to famous models such as Marky Mark and Kate Moss in provocative advertisements.
Calvin Klein Underwear -
1999
By 1999, Calvin Klein was a global fashion giant with operations in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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2003
With the sale of Calvin Klein INC to PVH, CK also leaves the fashion industry as a designer. However, a contract stipulates that he will continue to work for PVH in an advisory capacity until 2017.
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Since then, CK has lived in seclusion in the Hamptons and shuns public appearances.
Trivia
- CK is credited with bringing jeans to the mass market.
- A TV commercial in which Brooke Shields says, "Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." is banned from television. Further ads draw legal scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department in 1995 due to allegations of pornographic content of underage models.
- Numerous celebrities posed for CK, including Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Mehcad Brooks, Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Eva Mendes and FKA Twigs. With his underwear models such as Mark Wahlberg, Klein contributed to the staging of men as sex objects.
- He knew Ralph Lauren. Klein and Lauren grew up in the same neighborhood in the Bronx and knew each other.
Sources
Illustrated Books
Biographies
- Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein (1994) [Steven Gaines, Sharon Churcher]
- CALVIN KLEIN BIOGRAPHY: The Visionary Who Redefined Modern Fashion (2024) [Ronald H. Wilson]
- CALVIN KLEIN BIOGRAPHY: The Man Who Redefined Fashion - The Power Of Simplicity In High Fashion (2024) [Whitney M. White]
- The Biography of Calvin Klein: Political Playground, Calvin Klein's journey to fashion, how he became a famous fashion designer, things to know about him, Minimalism, and sensuality, and scandal (2024) [Johnson Drey]
- Calvin Klein: Fashion Design Superstar (Crabtree Groundbreaker Biographies) (2010) [Diane Dakers]
- Vogue on Calvin Klei (2017) [Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni]