calvin klein

Calvin Richard Klein was born on November 19th, 1942 in the U.S. to Jewish Hungarian immigrants.

He belonged to a small Jewish community which raised several distinguished fashion designers such as Robert Denning, or Ralph Lauren. He attended the High school of Industrial Art. Later, at the age of 20 he graduated from New York` s Fashion Institute of Technology. He worked as an apprentice at an old-line manufacturer in 1962. He spent the next five years designing for other New York shops. Being a protege of Baron de Gunzburg he had penetrated the world of New York fashion scene before his first successful jeans line was released. Soon after Gunzburg death the fashion designer stated:” He was truly the greatest inspiration of my life... he was my mentor, I was his protege. If you talk about a person with style and true elegance, maybe I'm being a snob, but I'll tell you, there was no one like him. I used to think, boy, did he put me through hell sometimes, but boy, was I lucky. I was so lucky to have known him so well for so long. ” Celvin Klein was denoted to be a gifted artist immediately after his debut fashion show. Klein` s clean lines and straight cuts reminds the insiders those of Yves Saint-Laurent.

Klein in cooperation with his childhood friend Barry Schwartz established an eponymous company – Calvin Klein Ltd. in 1968. It is believed that a merchant from Bonwit Teller deliberately found himself on the wrong floor what resulted in $50,000 order. It is more probable that Klein introduced his designs to Bonwit Teller staff which led to the first collection of men` s and women` s coats presented at the New York City store.

Described as ‘the supreme master of minimalism’ Calvin Klein became the face of the cover of Vogue magazine a year later. His women` s collection was completed in 1971. It included sportswear, classic blazers and women` s underwear.

Later on he won the Coty Award in 1973. Awarded for the 74-piece-women` s wear collection, Klein received it for three following years. The annual profit reached $30 million in 1977. Calvin Klein had licenses for shoes, scarves, belts, furs, sheets and sunglasses. Both Klein and Schwartz` s income was estimated at $4 million. It increased when the company got licenses for cosmetics, jeans, and men` s wear. Then Klein earned $100 million a year. Being on the market for the first time, the sales of his famous jeans were enormously successful when 200,000 pairs of them were sold in a week in 1978. It was calculated that Klein` s income approximately reached $8,5 million in 1981. He was the initiator of a designer-jeans trend when he started to put his brand on the back pocket. It was successfully advertised with young Brooke Shields in 1979/1980. The commercial slogans sounded like this: ‘nothing comes between me and my Calvins’ or ‘I've got seven Calvins in my closet, and if they could talk, I'd be ruined.’ In 1984 Shields advertised for Calvin Klein` s underwear.

In addition to clothing, Calvin Klein brand is well-known for its wide range of perfumes, cosmetics, and jewellery; although, the beginning can not be considered as a triumphant one. In the late 1970s the company` s attempts to released their own perfumes and cosmetics ended up with financial losses.

The astonishing growth went on in the early 1980s. The licenses, which were initiated in 1974 brought income of $24,000, had royalty turnover of $7,3 million ten years later. The worldwide sales were estimated at $600 million. During the decade the trademark extended its influence in the U.S. and there were 12,000 boutiques selling Calvin Klein` s fashion. What is more, the goods were available in six other countries. His annual profit passed $12 million.

The line of boxer shorts for women, and the men` s underwear collection was a great achievement in 1980s. The annual sales grew and the profit reached $70 million. The disagreement with the licensee of the men` s wear collection, unsatisfactory sales, and a massive employee turnover caused financial problems. Calvin Klein Industries were said to be offered for sale and it was about to be most probably purchased by Triangle Industries in 1987. This intention was stopped because of the crashing stock market.

In 1992 the company almost faced the bankruptcy. Calvin Klein made a right decision when he helped to increase the profitability of the business by the triumphant success of popular underwear, sportswear, and perfume lines. As Calvin Klein` s underwear was occupying the world` s market of underwear fashion his underpants have started being called just ‘Calvins’. The enormous billboards have showed the pictures of ‘Marky Mark’, a pop singer, whose advertisements were very successful. In 1993 he was called ‘America` s Best Designer’ so it shocked the public when the company was again up for sale in 1999. Planning to expand the CKI, LVMH and Pinault Printemps Redoute had offered to join the company, but unsuccessfully. Neither the second nor the third potential offer resulted in any reasonable conclusion. Since both Tommy Hilfiger Corporation and Italian Holding di Partecipazioni were disappointed by CKI` s price tag of $1 milliard. Calvin Klein claimed the company was not on the market anymore a seven months later.

In spite of it, in 2002 Calvin Klein Inc. was finally sold to Phillips Van Heusen Corp. for approximately $400 million in cash, $ 30 million in stock. Furthermore, the royalties and licensing rights linked to the turnover over the next 15 years were estimated at $200 to $300 million. The deal included an ongoing financial share on future sales of the Calvin Klein trademark.

PVH had also been interested in CK products especially the jeans, the underwear and the swimwear that had been controlled by Warnaco Group since 1997, the producer of Speedo swimwear. The deal made with PVH excluded these businesses which remained under the control of Warnaco Group. Inability to pay debts from licensing agreements and following bad publicity, Warnaco eventually emerged from bankruptcy in February 2003. Linda Wachner, then CEO of Warnaco Group was considered a personal enemy by the fashion designer himself.

Apax Partners Inc. financially supported the transaction between Calvin Klein and PVH. Their benefit was seats on the board of PVH. Once CKI was a property of PVH, Calvin Klein` s position in the company was going to be weakened. Firstly remained as a creative director, but later continued as an advisor who was only consulting creative director. Barry Schwartz, as a chairman of the New York Racing Association concentrated on his work in a horse-racing club. The current President and COO of the CKI division within PVH is Tom Murry.

An Italian Vestimenta SpA was entrusted with the production and distribution of CK collections for men and women in 2003 while CKI remained responsible for designing, advertising and control over the distribution. The same year Kellwood Corp. was selected as a strategic licensing partner. Its crucial role was to produce and distribute a Calvin Klein women` s sportswear collection in North, Central and South America in late 2004.The new collaboration with Andrew Grossman and Alexander Vreeland had formed a new business venture which was called GAV. The company designed and manufactured for CK and Emanuel Ungaro. The cooperation was stopped in autumn 2005 so Kellwood became responsible the women` s sportswear collection. It was evident that the Warnaco Group would have 100% of the shares connected to the licenses and the sale in 2006. Calvin Klein Jeans and accessories were widely spread in Europe as well as Asia. Moreover, the CK line of sportswear and accessories was supported by two companies Fingen SpA, a Florentine holding company, and Euro Cormar SpA. The former one was controlled by the Italian Frantinis and their share meant 90% of the European CK division. The general manager, Fabio Fusco owned the rest 10%. It is assumed that Warnaco will gain license for Calvin Klein collection men` s and women` s clothing as well as accessories worldwide from Fingen in the period 2008-2013. The act will have no impact on the current U.S. licenses with Kellwood Corp., or GAV.

Calvin Klein brand drew its attention to watches and jewellery when they made a deal with Swatch Group. Calvin Klein Watches & Jewellery has been designing watches since 1997.

The Calvin Klein designs have been very popular among the gay community, especially the modern boxer underpants. The trade mark can be seen in most gay-related shops.

The history of the company remembers several noteworthy designers. The contemporary creative director Francisco Costa had already assisted Calvin Klein directly.

Another noteworthy designer, Italo Zucchelli, had worked for Calvin Klein for six seasons before he was hired by CKI. He was a chief designer of the Calvin Klein Collection men` s wear line in 2004.

To give a list of Calvin Klein shops and boutiques, we cannot omit the first elegant shops which were founded in Paris, Soul, and Taipei and ultra-fancy CK Calvin Klein shops in Hong Kong, Milan and Kuwait City. The CK Collection shop in New York City is the only one controlled by CKI. The other ones are maintained by its partner. The Dallas Calvin Klein Collection store in Highland Park Village which had existed for 20 years was closed in 2005. In March 2006 an international location was closed in Paris. The most popular clothing sold in North American shops is the sportswear and CK lines. CK is a considerable brand in Europe as well. The most frequently required lines are the underwear one and the Collection business. The Warnaco Group is mainly interested in CK Jeans and the corresponding outlet stores. It is common that there are several Calvin Klein Outlet stores situated within the factory outlet malls which sell less expensive sportswear and CK lines. Since 2006 two Calvin Klein Jeans boutiques has been opened in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. The other has been run in Istanbul, Turkey.

Furthermore, the company has generated a number of luxury fragrances which are well-liked, as well. The perfumes and the fragrance lines have been produced by Calvin Klein Cosmetics Company until recently. Since 2005 the cosmetic products has been maintained by Coty, Inc.

Calvin (for men,1981)
Obsession (for men, 1986; for women, 1985)
Eternity (for men and women,1989)
Escape (for men, 1993; for women, 1991)
cK one (unisex,1994; 'Red Hot' edition 2000; 'Graffiti' art edition, 2003)
cK be (unisex,1996)
Contradiction (for men, 1998; for women, 1997)
Truth (for men, 2002, for women, 2000)
Crave (for men, 2002)
Eternity Purple Orchid ( for women, 2003)
Eternity Moment (for women, 2004)
Obsession Night (for men and women, 2005)
Euphoria (for women, 2005)
Eternity Summer (for men and women, 2006)
Euphoria ( for men,2006)
cK Electric (unisex, 2006)

An eye-catching advertising is the typical feature of Calvin Klein` s business strategy.

Calvin Klein` s campaigns might seem provocative with its use of underage models, but its success has proved it is worth. Two of the famous models were Mark Wahlberg alias ‘Marky Mark’, and Antonio Sabato Jr.

Their innovative strategies in advertising use a very unconventional campaign in 1999. The company aimed the campaign at teenagers by using e-mail addresses. The teenager who was interested in the models` lives could send an e-mail to learn detail information about the object of their attention. The e-mails were coming at unpredictable intervals so it gave the reader the feeling of authenticity. The campaign was stopped in 2002.