Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein was born in November 1942 in the Bronx, and he spent his childhood there. He was born to Jewish parents named Leo and Flo Stern, and they lived a relatively comfortable life. Klein's grandmother was a seamstress, and she inspired his passion for sewing while his mother inspired his passion for art. He went to the High School of Art and design, where he prepared for a career in advertising. While other boys his age were playing sports, Klein studied, sketched and sewed. After high school, he went to the Fashion Institute of Technology, graduating from there in 1962.

Calvin KleinAfter his graduation from FIT, he spent five years in an apprenticeship in a Seventh Avenue suit and coat house. There, he spent countless hours sharpening his own design skills, and in 1968, Klein and boyhood friend Barry Schwartz started a coat business. Their first order came as the result of a mistake; a buyer from Bonwit's got off the elevator on the wrong floor and ended up in their workroom. She ended up buying fifty thousand dollars' worth of coats, a large order for the time. The coats were reviewed favorably by the press and store executives, so Klein added women's sports wear to his line; later he added couture, CK sports wear and CK denim. Today, his most profitable lines include CK fragrances and denim.

Advertising was responsible for most of Calvin Klein's success, and Klein kept himself in the media by always stirring up controversy. He had edgy designs for the time period; he was the first designer to offer women's intimates that looked like jockey shorts. His early denim commercials starred model and actress Brooke Shields, and Klein developed a reputation for pushing the envelope with his ad campaigns. His fragrances- Escape, Eternity and Obsession- were also very successful due to suggestive ads.

Calvin Klein's design philosophy borders on the minimalistic, and he usually favors earth tones and neutral colors. He also favored the use of design separates that could work with a variety of other pieces, and could last from one season to the next. As his ad campaigns garnered harsh criticism, his clothing lines won critical acclaim for their modern and clean lines. In 1996, Klein was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans, and he also won the Coty Award three consecutive times. Klein built a financially stable company with the assistance of Barry Schwartz, and few designers since have been able to rival his success.