Calvin Klein

NAME Calvin Richard Klein. (1)

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Calvin Klein is an American fashion designer whose name became synonymous with minimalist design and provocative marketing. He built a global brand from coats and suits into sportswear, designer jeans, underwear and fragrance. He is also remembered for advertising campaigns, such as the 1980 Brooke Shields jeans commercials, that repeatedly caused public outrage and sold huge quantities of product. (2),

BIRTH Klein was born on November 19, 1942, in the Bronx, New York. He was born into a family of immigrants. (3)

FAMILY BACKGROUND His father, Leo Klein, emigrated from Budapest as a child and later became a grocer. His mother, Flore (Flo) Klein, née Stern, was the daughter of an American dentist and a seamstress from Austria. (1)

Some biographies give the parents' surname as Stern. Klein was the second of three children, with an elder brother and a younger sister.

His grandmother worked as a seamstress, and the family lived relatively comfortably. (3) 

CHILDHOOD Klein grew up in the Bronx and spent all of his childhood there. While other boys played sports, he sketched fashion designs and sewed.  He watched his grandmother work as a seamstress, and his mother encouraged his interest in art and fashion. (3)

Two close friends from that time shaped his later life. Jayne Centre, whom he began dating in junior high later became his first wife. Barry Schwartz, his best friend from childhood, later became his business partner. (1) 

EDUCATION Klein studied at the High School of Industrial Arts, now usually called the High School of Art and Design, in Manhattan. He then went to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. and graduated from FIT in 1962. (1)

CAREER RECORD 1962 Klein began work as an apprentice designer for a coat-and-suit manufacturer in New York's garment district. Notable Biographies describes about five years spent in a Seventh Avenue coat and suit house, where he worked long nights and weekends perfecting his own designs. 

1968 Klein launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. with a childhood friend and business partner, Barry K. Schwartz, starting out with a modest coat and dress shop on Seventh Avenue in New York City. 

1973-1975 He expanded heavily into sportswear and received three consecutive Coty American Fashion Critic's Awards, becoming the youngest designer ever inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame. 

2003 Klein sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, though he remained closely involved for a period as a design consultant and creative director.

APPEARANCE Klein has short brown hair that has since turned lighter, and blue eyes. Photographs from 2011 show him in plain dark tailoring, usually a black suit jacket with a white shirt. (1)

Calvin Klein By David Shankbone - Wikipedia 

FASHION Klein's style was clean, minimal and based on practical luxury. Early collections stressed clean lines and wearable basics. He first specialised in coats and suits, then widened into sportswear in the mid-1970s. (3), (1)

His designer jeans were pitched as a status item at a more accessible price. His underwear marketing is credited with making plain men's underwear fashionable. He told WWD in 1994, "I didn't set out thinking how to be controversial," and described fashion as a process of testing how much people will accept. (2)

CHARACTER Driven, intensely perfectionistic, and commercially ambitious, yet remarkably candid about his personal vulnerabilities, artistic motivations, and past struggles with the pressures of fame. (4)

Klein is generally portrayed as willing to push public taste. In 2026 he said of the Shields ads, "We knew exactly what we were doing," while admitting that he had not expected the size of the reaction. (5) 

SPEAKING VOICE Articulate, measured, and soft-spoken with a distinct New York cadence, Klein often reflects a thoughtful and deliberate approach when discussing design philosophy and business. (4)

SENSE OF HUMOUR Klein often framed his provocations as fun. He described the Shields campaign as "a hoot" and said the idea was that it was "fun," "young" and "a little bad." (4)

RELATIONSHIPS Klein married the textile designer Jayne Centre in 1964, and their daughter Marci Klein was born in 1966. Marci became a television producer, best known for her work on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. Klein and Centre divorced in 1974. (1)

In September 1986 he married his assistant of five years, Kelly Rector, while they were on a buying trip in Rome. She later became a well-known socialite and photographer. They separated in 1996, and the couple's divorce was finalized 10 years later. (1)

MONEY AND FAME Klein's brand grew from a hotel-room operation into a global business, and the 2003 sale to Phillips–Van Heusen was valued at roughly $430 million plus royalties. (1) 

The Shields ads illustrate how his notoriety fed sales. The campaign sold denim "like mad," in Klein's words, and customers began asking for "Brooke Shields jeans" in stores. (5)

FOOD AND DRINK In 1987 Klein told Vanity Fair that he followed what he called an 'alternate cuisine' of salads, chicken, fish and fresh vegetables, avoiding red meat and chocolate. (6)

CALVIN KLEIN INC In 1962, Calvin Klein began his career as an apprentice designer for a coat-and-suit manufacturer in New York's garment district. He spent the next five years working in a Seventh Avenue coat-and-suit house, often putting in long nights and weekends to hone his skills and develop his own designs. It was a useful education in the fashion business, if not necessarily one that left much time for anything else.

In 1968, Klein launched his own company with financial backing from childhood friend Barry Schwartz, who borrowed $10,000 to help get the venture off the ground. Klein initially operated from a hotel room, designing coats and hoping someone would buy them. His first break came almost by accident when a buyer from the department store Bonwit Teller wandered into his workroom by mistake. She liked what she saw and placed an order. It was an unusually productive wrong turn.

During the 1970s, the business expanded beyond coats and suits into sportswear, and Klein became one of the most recognisable names in American fashion. He was also part of the glamorous Studio 54 scene after the New York nightclub opened in 1977, appearing in photographs alongside Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol. His growing reputation was reinforced by several Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards.

In 1980, Klein launched a jeans advertising campaign featuring 15-year-old actress Brooke Shields. Shot and directed by Richard Avedon, the commercials included the now-famous line, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins." The campaign caused an enormous stir, with critics objecting to the sexualised presentation of such a young model. The resulting publicity, however, helped make Calvin Klein jeans a household name.

During the 1980s, the company broadened its reach into underwear and fragrances. Obsession arrived in 1985, accompanied by an increasingly ambitious advertising campaign. The brand's advertising budget eventually reached a then-record $13 million, a considerable sum to spend persuading people that they needed to smell like Calvin Klein.

In 1995, another controversial jeans campaign brought the company under scrutiny. The Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section investigated the advertisements, which featured young-looking models in suggestive poses. The investigation was dropped after the company demonstrated that its models were of legal age.

In 2003, Klein and Schwartz sold the company to Phillips-Van Heusen (later renamed PVH Corp.) in a deal valued at approximately $430 million, with the potential for a further $300 million in royalties. Klein initially remained involved as a consulting creative director but subsequently withdrew from the company's day-to-day design work. His name, however, continued to adorn clothing, fragrances and underwear long after he had ceased running the business.

MUSIC AND ARTS Klein originally wanted to be an artist and studied art and design at secondary school. (3)

 His campaigns drew on leading photographers, including Richard Avedon, who shot the Shields ads. (2) 

Deeply immersed in the cultural zeitgeist of New York City, maintaining close friendships with legendary artists, musicians, and photographers like Andy Warhol during the height of the Studio 54 era. (1)

Klein has said that Mark Rothko's use of colour and the architecture of Donald Judd's Marfa foundation influenced his work, and that inspiration can come from architecture, fine art and nature. (7)

LITERATURE Calvin Klein has written one book: Calvin Klein, a 480-page monograph published by Rizzoli on October 10, 2017. It is a large hardcover of photographs by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber and Patrick Demarchelier, arranged in three sections: Provocative, Minimalist, and a final section with Klein's own commentary on the campaigns.

NATURE  In 1987 Klein and his then-wife Kelly Rector bought an oceanfront estate in East Hampton, Long Island, between the Atantic Ocean and Georgica Pond, for $3.6 million. He sold it in 2021 for a combined $85 million. (8)

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Klein did not play sports as a child. He spent his time sketching and sewing instead. (3) 

He was a fixture of the New York social scene, photographed at nightclubs and parties in the late 1970s. (1)

Klein followed a fitness routine that included an exercise bike at home, according to a 1987 Vanity Fair profile. (6)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Klein demonstrated a sharp pragmatic understanding of textile chemistry, fabric production mechanics, and industrial garment manufacturing processes

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Klein was raised in a Jewish household, but has embraced a secular, modern worldview centered on personal expression, simplicity, functional elegance, and the belief that clothing should liberate rather than restrict the wearer

Religious groups have been among the critics of his advertising. In 1995 the Catholic League's C. J. Doyle called the campaign images "cynical, exploitative and immoral." (2)

POLITICS NDB lists his party affiliation as Democratic. (4)

SCANDAL The 1980 Brooke Shields commercials featured the line "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." Several ABC, NBC and CBS local affiliates refused to air them, and the campaign was widely denounced as sexualising a 15-year-old. Shields has said she was naive and did not see the line as sexual. She has also said the controversy "backfired" in the company's favour. (9)

The 1995 jeans campaign brought a Justice Department inquiry. The American Family Association also threatened to boycott retailers who stocked the jeans. The charges were dropped after the company proved that the models were adults, but the commercials were pulled from the air. (2)

Brooke Shields in the infamous Calvin Klein Jeans campaign.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS In May 1988 Klein checked himself into the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota, for a 31-day programme to treat alcohol and prescription-drug (Valium) dependence. (10)

In April 2003 he again sought treatment for substance abuse, after erratic behaviour at a New York Knicks game. (11)

HOMES For many years Klein owned a house in Fire Island Pines, New York. He sold it in 1995, but it is still known as "The Calvin Klein House." 

In 2003 he bought an ocean-front estate in Southampton, Long Island, and demolished it to build a $75 million glass-and-concrete mansion. In 2015 he listed his Miami Beach mansion for $16 million, and it sold for $12,850,000 in February 2017.  (12)

TRAVEL Traveled extensively throughout Europe and the Americas for fashion shows, fabric sourcing, production oversight, and international high-society events.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Frequently featured in documentaries, fashion retrospectives, talk shows, and pop culture references, including notable parodies and homages in television series like Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

ACHIEVEMENTS Founded Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968 and built it into a global brand in coats, sportswear, jeans, underwear and fragrance. 

Was one of the best-known American designers through the 1970s and 1980s, with a name tied to minimalist design. 

Launched advertising campaigns, such as the 1980 Shields ads, that are still cited as landmarks in fashion marketing. 

Sources: (1) Britannica (2) Yahoo Entertainment (3) Notable Biographies (4) NNDB (5) People (6) Vanity Fair. (7) Gagosian Quarterly. (8) Robb Report (9) Vogue (10) Los Angeles Times (11) The New York Times (12) Wikipedia