Calvin Klein Biography

Fashion Designer / Business Personality

Fashion designer Calvin Klein is particularly known for his jeans and and for his many provocative underwear advertisements. Klein graduated from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology in 1964 and formed his own company; 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 billboards and print ads featuring nearly-naked models in exotic poses. The ads made stars of several models, including Kate Moss, Mark Wahlberg and Christy Turlington. Klein later branched into other products, most notably the fragrance Obsession. In 2002 his company was acquired by the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation.

Extra credit: 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."

Related fashion figures include Gianni Versace, Edith Head and Tommy Hilfiger.