Who doesn’t know the dilemma, prefer to pay 5$ for 10 boxers at uniqlo or the triple for a pair of Calvins ? Calvin Klein has influenced the youth culture with simple underwear and perfectly cut denim Jeans. Today we want to zoom back to the roots and point out some old facts for you guys.
Under the brand name “Calvin Klein”, clothing, including underwear for women, men and children, as well as shoes, accessories, perfume, jewelry, watches and home items are sold in the upscale price segment worldwide via their own shops, online shops and international retail. But who is Calvin Klein and where does he come from ?
He graduated from the University of Art and Design in Midtown Manhattan in 1960 and subsequently at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea (Manhattan) where he graduated in fashion design in 1963. Later on as a freelance designer for other fashion houses at in Manhattan. At the end of December 1967, Klein administration with the financial help of a school friend died in New York City after the clothing company named after him. He made his first small collection of three dresses and six coats for women in a New York hotel in March 1968 and was commissioned by the fashion house Bonwit Teller. Other American fashion houses, against Macy’s, retired after. With his simple, puristic, timelessly modern mode with clear lines in subtle, one-color fabrics, Klein quickly made a name for himself in the New York fashion scene. Klein’s personal contacts with fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar include the marketing of the Calvin Klein collections. In 1973 Klein received his first Coty Award, the forerunner of the CFDA Fashion Awards, for his 74 74-piece women’s collection. In 1974 and 1975 he was renewed the Coty Award. The CFDA Fashion Award was given in 1981, 1983, 1987 (best American fashion collection), 1993 (in two categories: women’s and men’s fashion), 1998/99 (men’s fashion) and 2001 (life’s work).
Small-scale 1964 Jayne Center, with whom he owns a personal daughter, Marci Hut. In 1974, divorce was the order of the day. In 1986 he called Kelly Rector, from whom he separated in 1996; In 2006 this marriage was divorced. Since his departure from his fashion company, Klein’s same-sex workers have been a topic in the press. Klein has lived in the Hamptons in Southampton since 2003 and is afraid of public appearances.
As early as the late 1970s, he began to license other products such as perfumes (now manufactured by Coty Inc.), accessories and, since the 1990s, watches (licensed to the Swatch Group) and glasses under the Calvin Klein brand.
From the late 1970s, Calvin Klein was known for his jeans clothing and the sometimes daring advertising campaigns – for the u. a. 1980 Brooke Shields posed as a model as a teenager. The invention of designer jeans for the mass market is attributed to him. He presented the first designer jeans with the Calvin Klein logo in 1978.
The Calvin Klein Underwear division for underwear was founded in 1982. Klein is considered the pioneer of high-priced designer underwear. In the early 1990s, Mark Wahlberg, at that time under his stage name Marky Mark, was a model or photo motif for a large advertising campaign for Calvin Klein underwear, photographed by Herb Ritts. The model Kate Moss also adorned the advertising posters for the Calvin Klein jeans, underwear and perfume divisions in 1992. At times Wahlberg and Moss appeared together in commercials for Calvin Klein Underwear.
In 2002, Klein sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), an American shirt manufacturer, for $ 430 million. Since the sale, which was financed by Apax Partners in 2003, Klein has no longer been responsible for the design of the fashion collections. The purchase contract stipulated that Klein would remain employed as a consultant at PVH until 2017.
From 1968 to 2003, Calvin Klein himself headed his company as creative director, even though numerous designers had worked on his team in recent years before he left. The designer for the Calvin Klein Collection for women was the Brazilian Francisco Costa from 2003, who joined the company in 2002. His predecessor from 1996 to 2002 was Tim Gardner. The men’s collection Calvin Klein Collection was created in 2003 by the Italian Italo Zucchelli, who has been with the company since 2001. Briton Kevin Carrigan, who has worked for Calvin Klein since 1998, was the creative director for the ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein sportswear collections and the license collection Calvin Klein Jeans. Accessories and shoes of all Calvin Klein brands are still designed by the German Ulrich Grimm. All four designers already worked for the company when Calvin Klein was personally the creative director of the company and headed a team of designers in the years before he left. Amy Mellen is responsible for the design team around the Calvin Klein Home collections. David Cunningham has been in charge of designing the Calvin Klein Jeans collection at the New York clothing company Warnaco Group since 2009.
In February 2017, under Raf Simons’ leadership, a new company lettering, created by graphic designer Peter Saville and made of pure capital letters, was presented, which is to recall the original company logo from the late 1960s.
Even though media interest in the Calvin Klein brand had increased massively after Simons’ appointment, Simons had received numerous awards for his artistic designs, which were highly praised by the specialist audience (including the CFDA Women’s Fashion Award 2017 and 2018, Men’s Fashion Award 2017) and the sales points for the catwalk collection had increased tenfold after Simon’s first fashion presentation, the hoped-for sales ultimately failed to materialize, and the costs for PVH continued to rise. “After only four collections, a collaboration ended, which in retrospect must be recognized as one of the great design experiments of the present day,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Critical voices criticized Simons’ lack of experience with fashion companies like Calvin Klein, who are mainly active in the wholesale business for the mass market, and the fact that he was given too much responsibility. In addition, Simons would remain unknown to the average end user. In the area of perfume, jeans and underwear – the main source of income for the Calvin Klein brand – Simons had no notable success, let alone launched an it bag in the accessories business. Simons’ artist collaborations, including with Sterling Ruby and the Andy Warhol Foundation, were costly projects for PVH.
The Calvin Klein fashion show planned for February in New York was canceled. PVH subsequently announced that it would close the Collection flagship store on New York’s Madison Avenue and permanently discontinue the entire Collection line, after it had previously planned to rename and reorganize it. At the end of March 2019, Chirico described rising sales figures for the Calvin Klein brand after Simons’ departure.
No matter whether new or old director. Calvin Klein is and remains one of the brands from the 90s to the present and influenced theyouth culture and is thus iconic with today’s zeitgeist.
