Calvin Klein

In 1968, Calvin Klein and his childhood friend Barry K. Schwartz scraped together $10,000 and opened a coat shop in a New York City hotel. Within a year, Klein's understated dresses landed on the cover of American Vogue. That was the start of a brand that would redefine American fashion with its clean lines and deliberately provocative advertising.

By the 1980s, Calvin Klein had turned denim and underwear into cultural statements. A 1980 Richard Avedon campaign featuring a 15-year-old Brooke Shields, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins", got banned by some radio stations and made the brand infamous. In the early 1990s, a series of black-and-white ads launched Kate Moss's international career and cemented the brand's signature look: minimal, sensual, and confrontational.

Today the brand spans everything from jeans and underwear to fragrances like Obsession and Eternity, with licensed products accounting for more than 90% of revenue. PVH Corp. acquired Calvin Klein in 2002 for about $700 million, and by 2022 global retail sales reached $9.3 billion. The company operates in over 100 countries, with its headquarters still in Midtown Manhattan. [edit]