During his 1990–1995 stint as Calvin Klein's head of menswear design, John Varvatos pioneered a type of men's underwear called boxer briefs, a hybrid of boxer shorts and briefs. And indeed, in late 1987, it was said that the sale of the company to Triangle Industries, a container manufacturer, had only failed because of the crashing stock market.Īlthough the company almost faced bankruptcy in 1992, Calvin Klein managed to regain and increase the profitability of his empire throughout the later 1990s, mainly through the success of its highly popular underwear and fragrance lines, as well as the ck sportswear line.
His annual income passed $12 million (equivalent to $29.89 million in 2021).įinancial problems increased pressure from all sides, disagreements with the licensee of the menswear line and its disappointing sales as well as an enormous employee turnover both within Calvin Klein and its licensing partners led to the first rumors that Calvin Klein Industries, as the company had been known by then, was up for sale. Klein's clothes were sold through 12,000 stores in the United States and were available in six other countries through licensing deals, namely Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. That year, worldwide retail sales were estimated at more than $60 million (equivalent to $1494.62 million in 2021). The licensing program, which brought in $24,000 when it was initiated in 1974 (equivalent to $125,943 in 2020), had royalty income of $7.3 million ten years later (equivalent to $18.18 million in 2021). Growth continued through the early eighties. The American market of men's underwear was changed – from one where most men's underwear was white, purchased in packs of three by a "wife, mother or girlfriend when they needed to be" to one where "the American male about the brand of something few ever see". In the 1980s, as the designer-jeans frenzy reached its all-time high, Calvin Klein introduced a highly successful line of boxer shorts for women and a men's underwear collection which would later gross $70 million in a single year. In the late 1970s, the company also made attempts to set up its own fragrance and cosmetics lines, but soon withdrew from the market with big financial losses. The gift was assumed by Schwartz to be part of the upcoming line, and similar logo shirts formed the uniform for the front-of-house staff at Klein's next catwalk show, leading to buyer demand. Klein's design assistant at the time, Jeffrey Banks, has claimed credit for the logo garments, stating that he had the logo from a press folder silkscreened onto the sleeve of a brown T-shirt as a present for Klein. In the mid-1970s, he had created a designer-jeans craze by putting his name on the back pocket. By 1981, Fortune figured Klein's annual income at $8.5 million. In 1978, Klein claimed sales of 200,000 pairs of his famous jeans the first week they were on the market. After the company signed licenses for cosmetics, jeans, and menswear, Klein's annual retail volume was estimated at $100 million (equivalent to $427 million in 2021). Klein and Schwartz were making $4 million each. By 1977, annual revenues had increased to $30 million (equivalent to $128 million in 2021), and Klein had licenses for scarves, shoes, belts, furs, sunglasses, and bedsheets. In 1973, he received his first Coty American Fashion Critics' Award for his 74-piece womenswear collection – the youngest recipient at that time.
1970s īy 1971, Klein had added sportswear, classic blazers, and lingerie to his women's collection. In September 1969, Klein appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine. The first Calvin Klein collection was a line of "youthful, understated coats and dresses" featured at the New York City store Bonwit Teller. In 1968, Klein founded Calvin Klein Limited, a coat shop in the York Hotel in New York City, with $10,000.
He was immediately recognized for his talent after his first major showing at New York Fashion Week.
He became a protégé of Baron de Gunzburg, through whose introductions he became the toast of the New York elite fashion scene even before he had his first mainstream success with the launch of his first jeans line. History The early years Ĭalvin Klein was one of several design leaders raised in the Jewish community in the Bronx, along with Robert Denning and Ralph Lauren. 1.5 2002–present: Acquisition by Phillips van Heusen.
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