Fashion Designer Biography: Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein is an American Fashion Designer, born on November 19, 1942 in the Bronx, New York. At a young age he developped a passion for fashion and drawing, later enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan where he studied apparel design.

Inspired by the fresh and unpretentious style of New York's urban youth, Klein set out to launch his own clothing company in 1968. With financial backing from his childhood friend Barry Schwartz, he commissioned a local seamstress to make a handful of coats and dresses. A merchandise manager from Bonwit Teller visited Klein's dingy showroom and took notice of the collection. Within weeks, the chic department store purchased $50,000 worth of merchandise and displayed the samples in eight of their coveted windows. Shortly after his auspicious debut, Klein created a line of designer sportswear.

In 1968 Klein set up his own company with lifelong friend Barry Schwartz and he put together some examples of his design ideas. A rep from the exclusive department store Bonwit Teller visited his collection and immediately agreed to buy $50,000 worth of merchandise for the store.

This led to Klein's work being featured in glossy magazines such as Vogue and Harper's & Queen. This early success was heightened by the introduction of his classic, trademark jeans. Designer jeans were an instant hit, with their tight cut and controversial advertising campaign featuring Brooke Shields; they were selling enormous numbers every week.

Throughout the fashion industry, word spread quickly about Klein and his sleek designs, which were now featured regularly in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. In the early 1970s, he introduced his trademark jeans, which he elevated to designer status by cutting them tight and branding his name on the back pocket. A series of provocative advertisements (that had 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooing the line, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.") created a designer jean frenzy among consumers, who were purchasing over 40,000 pairs a week.

In the early eighties he launched the Calvin Klein underwear range with boxer shorts and briefs providing chic under garments for both sexes. This was quickly followed by Klein's entrance into the fragrance market with Eternity and Obsession. In the nineties Calvin Klein launched the CK label, designing clothes for a more middle-market customer. The clothes were more casual in design and were accompanied by a range of accessories including swimwear and eyewear. Klein followed this with products for the home and a cosmetics range.

Throughout these years Calvin Klein was often frowned upon for his use of provocative advertising. Along with images of Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg, an advertising campaign featuring pictures of adolescents in sexually suggestive poses received damning criticism and he was forced to withdraw the ads.

Today Calvin Klein is the favored fashion designer for many celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts, and many young fashion designers have felt his influence.

Klein has received many accolades for his work and contribution to fashion: he won the Coty Award in 1973, 1974 and 1975 (making him the youngest designer to win these awards), and was awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for design in women and menswear in 1982, 1983, and 1986 (making history as the first designer to receive both awards in the same year), as well as the CDFA in 1993 for both women and menswear, and the America's Best Designer of 1993 Award.