Calvin Klein: Founder of Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein: Founder of Calvin Klein

Business Owner · Fashion & Apparel

New York City

Calvin Klein grew up in the Bronx, apprenticed at a cloak-and-suit manufacturer in 1962 and launched the company that became Calvin Klein in 1968.

About Calvin Klein: Founder of Calvin Klein

Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942, in the Bronx, New York City) is an American fashion designer who in 1968 launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. Besides clothing, he has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches and jewellery. Klein was born to a Jewish family, the son of Flore Stern and Leo Klein; his father was born in Boiany, Austria-Hungary, now Ukraine, and immigrated to New York, and his mother was born in the United States to immigrants from Galicia and Bukovina. He attended J.H.S. 80 in the Bronx, earned a diploma at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, leaving for six months after his first year before returning to finish his degree. He was one of several design leaders raised in the Bronx's Jewish community, along with Ralph Lauren and Robert Denning. Klein did his apprenticeship in 1962 at an old line cloak-and-suit manufacturer, Dan Millstein, and spent five years designing at other New York City shops. Sources: English Wikipedia (Calvin Klein, accessed September 2026).

Basic Information

Founder, Calvin Klein

Company Details

Calvin Klein

Fashion, Fragrance, Accessories