Calvin Klein: A $10,000 Start, Logo Jeans and the Boxer Brief

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Calvin Klein grew up in the Bronx, in the same Jewish community that produced Ralph Lauren, and in 1968 started a company with childhood friend Barry K. Schwartz on $10,000, making coats out of the York Hotel in New York. A placement at Bonwit Teller led to a Vogue cover in September 1969 and Coty Awards in 1973, 1974 and 1975, the first making him the youngest winner. He then moved into denim, cutting jeans tighter and putting his name on the back pocket. Revenue reached $30 million by 1977, and licensing spread the name to shoes, belts, sunglasses and bedsheets; by 1981 he was earning $8.5 million a year.

A logo T-shirt began as a gift: assistant Jeffrey Banks silkscreened the company logo onto a brown shirt, Schwartz mistook it for a prototype, and buyers demanded it. In the early 1990s head of menswear John Varvatos merged the boxer and brief into the boxer brief, promoted by a 1992 campaign. Yet heavy advertising spending and struggling licensees strained finances until fragrance profits helped. In December 2002 the company was sold to Phillips-Van Heusen for about $400 million in cash, $30 million in stock and royalties estimated at $200 to $300 million over 15 years, and Klein departed in 2003.

The 1980 jeans ads shot by Richard Avedon featured 15 year old Brooke Shields and were banned by some TV stations.
A 1995 denim campaign drew criticism over the models' youth and was pulled.
A 2014 campaign with model Myla Dalbesio was criticized for being read as a plus size label.
Licensee Warnaco filed for Chapter 11 in 2001, and PVH bought it for $2.8 billion in 2013 to reunite the brand.
Global retail sales under the name reached $9 billion in 2022.

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