Who is Calvin Klein?

• Really cool underwear ads


• Really great jeans


• Really beautiful perfumes

Calvin Richard Klein was born November 19, 1942 in New York, NY. He is best known for his jeans and also for the provocative ads for his underwear.

Klein graduated from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology in 1964 and formed his own company in 1968. At the time the trendy, fashionable look was very casual (pretending to not be trendy). Klein took a different approach - designing simple, understated, elegant clothing. Though noted at first for suits and coats, he gradually placed more emphasis on sportswear, particularly interchangeable separates. He became a household name during the designer jeans boom of the late 1970s. His name-brand underwear was a hit in the 1980s, helped along by exotic billboards and print ads. (Teen actress Brooke Shields created a stir with her late 1970s ad for Calvin Klein jeans, in which she delivered the line, "You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.") These ads are also credited with making stars of some of the models, including Kate Moss, Mark Wahlberg and Christy Turlington. After these successes, Klein branched out into other products, including many highly successful fragrance and cosmetic lines. Klein was the first designer to win three consecutive Coty Awards for womenswear (1973, '74, and '75).