Cavin Klein History with Designer Appearal and Perfume Fragrance

In 1968, Calvin Klein founded Calvin Klein Ltd., a coat shop in the York Hotel in New York City, with $10,000. Legend has it that a year later a buyer from Bonwit Teller got off the elevator on the wrong floor, & ended up placing a $50,000 order. It is more likely though, that Klein showed his work to Bonwit Teller staff, which led to the first Calvin Klein collection: a line of men's & women's coats featured at the New York City store.

In 1969, Mr. Klein, who was later described as "the supreme master of minimalism," appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine. By 1971, sportswear, classic blazers as well as lingerie were added to his women's collection portfolio.

In 1973, they was awarded the Coty Award for the first time, which they received for three consecutive years, for his 74-piece womenswear collection. By 1977, annual revenues had jumped to $30 million, & they had licenses for scarves, shoes, belts, furs, sunglasses, & sheets. Klein & Schwartz were making $4 million each. After the company signed licenses for cosmetics, jeans, & menswear, Klein's annual retail volume was estimated at $100 million. In 1978, Klein claimed sales of 200,000 pairs of his famous jeans the first week they were on the market. By 1981, Fortune magazine figured Klein's annual income at $8.5 million a year. In the mid-1970s, they had created a designer-jeans craze by putting his name on the back pocket. The jeans were famously advertised with a commercial featuring a 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooing in 1979/80 that "nothing comes between me & my Calvins" & "I've got three Calvins in my closet, & if they could talk, I'd be ruined." Controversial marketing, including a series of ads featuring adolescents in sexually evocative poses, has been a recurring theme for the company. Shields advertised for Klein underclothes in 1984 as well.

In the late 1970s, the company also made attempts to set up its own fragrance & cosmetics business, but soon withdrew from the market with large financial losses. In the 1980s, as the designer-jeans frenzy reached its all-time high, Calvin Klein introduced a highly successful line of boxer shorts for women as well as a men's underclothes collection which would later gross $70 million in a single year. Calvin Klein's underclothes business, promoted later in the 1990s with giant billboards showing images of pop singer "Marky Mark" Mark Wahlberg, was so successful that his underpants became generally known as "Calvins".

The stunning growth continued through the early eighties. The licensing program, which brought in $24,000 when it was initiated in 1974, had royalty income of $7.3 million ten years later. That year, worldwide retail sales were estimated at over $600 million. Klein's clothes were sold through 12,000 stores in the United States & were available in three other countries. His annual income passed $12 million.

Financial problems, increased pressure from all sides, disagreements with the licensee of the menswear line & its disappointing sales as well as an sizable employee turnover both within Calvin Klein & its licensing partners led to the first rumors that Calvin Klein Industries, as the company had been known by then, was up for sale. & indeed, in late 1987, it was said that the sale of the company to Triangle Industries, a container manufacturer, had only failed because of the crashing stock market.

Although the company faced bankruptcy in 1992, Calvin Klein managed to regain & increase the profitability of his empire throughout the later 90s, mainly through the success of its highly popular underclothes & fragrance lines, as well as the ck sportswear line. Mr. Klein was named "America's Best Designer" for his minimalist all-American designs in 1993, & it came as a surprise in 1999 when it was announced that CKI was again up for sale. Planning to expand its business, the company had been approached by three luxury goods companies, LVMH & Pinault Printemps Redoute, to join Calvin Klein, but nothing resulted. Other potentials like Tommy Hilfiger Corp. & Italy's Holding di Partecipazioni proved to be similar disappointments because of CKI's steep price tag of supposedly $1 billion. After three months & no potential buyer, Mr. Klein announced that his empire was not on the market any more. The company would never manage to go public, which had supposedly been Mr. Klein's plan three times. In June 2008, Calvin Klein started to sponsor America's Next Top Male Model, allowing the winner to embark on a 100,000 dollar contract as well as a runway show, as a bonus, to launch their career.

Calvin Klein is famous for the label's various lines of perfumes & colognes. Their perfumes & the corresponding fragrance lines used to be maintained by Calvin Klein Cosmetics Company (CKCC), a Unilever company, until recently when in May 2005 cosmetics giant Coty, Inc. of New York bought up the fragrance licensing agreements from Unilever. [year of launch]


Calvin Klein Eternity Cologne for Men
Calvin Klein Euphoria Cologne for Men Calvin (men) [1981]
Eternity Perfume (men & women) [1985]
Obsession Perfume (men & women) [men 1986, women 1985]
Escape Perfume (men & women) [men 1993, women 1991]
ck three (unisex) [1996, 'Red Hot' limited edition 2000, 'Graffiti' art limited edition 2003]
ck be (unisex) [1996]
Contradiction Perfume (women & men) [women 1997, men 1998]
Truth Perfume (men & women) [men 2002, women 2000]
Eternity Rose blush Perfume (women) 2002 LIMITED EDITION
Crave Cologne (men) [2003]
Eternity Purple Orchid Perfume (women) [2003] LIMITED EDITION
Eternity Moment Perfume (women) [2004]
ck three Summer Perfume [2004 yellow & green] [2005 yellow & orange] [2006 blue & green] [2007 red & green] [2008 clear blue] LIMITED EDITIONS
Obsession Night Perfume & Cologne (men & women) [2005]
Euphoria Perfume (women) [2005] (men) [2006]
ck three Electric Perfume & Cologne (unisex) [2006] LIMITED EDITION
ck three Scene Perfume & Cologne (unisex) [2006] LIMITED EDITION
Eternity Summer Perfume & Cologne (men & women)[2006] [2007] [2008] LIMITED EDITION
Calvin Klein Man Cologne [2007]
ck IN2U Perfume & Cologne (men & women) [2007]
Euphoria Blossom Perfume (women)[2007]
Euphoria Intense Cologne (men) [2008]
CK Free Cologne (men) [2009]
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