Calvin Klein

Calvin Richard Klein was born on November 19, 1942, in the Bronx, New York City, to a Jewish family. His mother, Flore (née Stern), and father, Leo Klein, raised him; Leo had immigrated from Boiany, then part of Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine), and his family roots trace back to Galicia and Bukovina in the same empire (now Ukraine and Romania). Klein attended J.H.S. 80 in the Bronx, earned a diploma from Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology—leaving for six months after his first year before returning to complete his degree. He was one of several notable designers from the Bronx’s Jewish community, alongside Ralph Lauren and Robert Denning.

His career began with an apprenticeship in 1962 at Dan Millstein, a traditional cloak-and-suit manufacturer, followed by five years designing for various New York City shops. In 1968, he and childhood friend Barry K. Schwartz launched Klein’s first company. Schwartz, who had been considering buying a supermarket in Harlem, instead backed Klein’s plan to “design medium priced clothes with a clean look.” Klein left his manufacturing job, set up an office in a hotel room, started designing coats, and sold his first pieces to Bonwit Teller after a buyer there liked them. He became a protégé of Baron de Gunzburg, who introduced him to New York’s elite fashion scene before his first major success—a jeans line. His debut at New York Fashion Week earned immediate recognition, with critics hailing him as the new Yves Saint Laurent and praising his clean lines. In 1974, his tight-fitting signature jeans grossed $200,000 in their first week. In 1998, he took part in a celebrity reading of *The Emperor’s New Clothes* for the Starbright Foundation, benefiting ill children.

Klein has supported the U.S. Democratic Party, donating over $250,000 to candidates and PACs since 1980. He married textile designer Jayne Centre in 1964; they had met in college despite attending the same high school and growing up next door in New York. Their daughter, Marci Klein, became a television producer known for *Saturday Night Live* and *30 Rock*. The couple divorced in 1974. In September 1986, he married his assistant, Kelly Rector, during a buying trip in Rome; she later became a socialite photographer. They separated in 1996, and their divorce was finalized in April 2006. From 2010 to 2012, he dat