Interviews
Calvin Klein donates $2 mn to Fashion Institute of Tech
16 Feb '12
6 min read
Calvin Klein is an award-winning fashion icon. He is recognized globally as a master of minimalism and has spent his career distilling things to their very essence. Today, the company he founded and sold to PVH Corp. in 2003, ranks among the best-known brands in the world; the Calvin Klein brand achieved over $7 billion in global retail sales in 2011.
Mr. Klein studied at the High School of Art & Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After a short time working as a designer, he launched his eponymous business in 1968 along with his childhood friend, Barry Schwartz.
Whether in fashion, fragrance, beauty or his collections for the home, his work has been subtle, sophisticated, possessing a clarity that redefined modern living, and an American point of view. For him, the challenge is to create new things that fit a modern way of life. "It's about making people look and feel good about themselves and their homes," he has said.
The scope of Calvin Klein's influence makes him unique among the world's top designers. Always on the cutting edge of fashion, he reinvented many basic icons of modern dress. He pioneered designer jeans and redefined the idea of underwear and fragrance, making designer quality apparel affordable for virtually anyone, as well as revolutionizing the designer denim and underwear businesses with his overtly sexy advertising campaigns.
Those campaigns redefined the way products were marketed to consumers and he was among the first to purchase multiple ad pages in magazines. One of the most famous was his 1991 Calvin Klein Jeans supplement for Vanity Fair magazine, which totaled over 100 pages.
Time Magazine, in 1996, named Calvin Klein as one of the most influential Americans.
In 1973, Mr. Klein won the prestigious Coty American Fashion Critic's Award, the fashion industry's Oscar, and was the first designer to win the award consecutively, receiving it again in 1974 and 1975. He was the youngest designer ever to be elected into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1975.
Mr. Klein also received seven awards for outstanding design from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, including a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed in 2001.
Mr. Klein has one daughter, Marci Klein, a television producer. He resides in New York City.
FIT's Fashion Design program was established in 1944, the year the college was founded. The associate-degree program provides students with an essential foundation for creating apparel from sketch to finished garment. In the baccalaureate program, students receive advanced instruction in specialized areas. The program's close ties to the fashion design industry provide an immersion in current trends and practices. The college's curriculum nurtures creativity while providing a rigorous grounding in practical and technical skills, as well as in the liberal arts. As part of their course of study, students intern with leading designers and design houses. They also have the opportunity to study abroad, in particular at one of FIT's programs in Florence and Milan.
Mr. Klein studied at the High School of Art & Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After a short time working as a designer, he launched his eponymous business in 1968 along with his childhood friend, Barry Schwartz.
Whether in fashion, fragrance, beauty or his collections for the home, his work has been subtle, sophisticated, possessing a clarity that redefined modern living, and an American point of view. For him, the challenge is to create new things that fit a modern way of life. "It's about making people look and feel good about themselves and their homes," he has said.
The scope of Calvin Klein's influence makes him unique among the world's top designers. Always on the cutting edge of fashion, he reinvented many basic icons of modern dress. He pioneered designer jeans and redefined the idea of underwear and fragrance, making designer quality apparel affordable for virtually anyone, as well as revolutionizing the designer denim and underwear businesses with his overtly sexy advertising campaigns.
Those campaigns redefined the way products were marketed to consumers and he was among the first to purchase multiple ad pages in magazines. One of the most famous was his 1991 Calvin Klein Jeans supplement for Vanity Fair magazine, which totaled over 100 pages.
Time Magazine, in 1996, named Calvin Klein as one of the most influential Americans.
In 1973, Mr. Klein won the prestigious Coty American Fashion Critic's Award, the fashion industry's Oscar, and was the first designer to win the award consecutively, receiving it again in 1974 and 1975. He was the youngest designer ever to be elected into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1975.
Mr. Klein also received seven awards for outstanding design from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, including a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed in 2001.
Mr. Klein has one daughter, Marci Klein, a television producer. He resides in New York City.
FIT's Fashion Design program was established in 1944, the year the college was founded. The associate-degree program provides students with an essential foundation for creating apparel from sketch to finished garment. In the baccalaureate program, students receive advanced instruction in specialized areas. The program's close ties to the fashion design industry provide an immersion in current trends and practices. The college's curriculum nurtures creativity while providing a rigorous grounding in practical and technical skills, as well as in the liberal arts. As part of their course of study, students intern with leading designers and design houses. They also have the opportunity to study abroad, in particular at one of FIT's programs in Florence and Milan.
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