Calvin Klein is an American Designer who founded one of the top fashion houses in the world. The Calvin Klein, Inc. brand is now among the most recognizable fashion dynasties in the industry. Klein founded the company in 1968 with $10,000 and a line of men's and women's coats that were then featured at New York City's Bonwit Teller.
The line is now owned and operated by the shirt maker Phillips-Van Heusen. As a fully owned subsidiary, the company has continued to grow and thrive with designer Calvin Klein functioning as the creative consultant advisor.
The Calvin Klein portfolio includes an impressive array of products and clothing collections that are popular throughout the America's, Europe and the world. The Calvin Klein Collection is the company's high-end designer line. The Collection, which is premiered bi-annually in New York and Milan, features costly designer apparel such as menswear, dresses, coats, eyewear, footwear and leather goods. The ck Calvin Klein is the company's secondary line of products. This diffusion line retails more moderately priced items than does the signature black label, top-end designer line. This line offers watches, jewelry, accessories and men's and women's fragrances in department stores and other concession channels.
Among the other most recognizable brand names in the collection are Calvin Klein, the company's white label and better sportswear clothing for men and women; Calvin Klein Sport, available exclusively at Macy's department stores as a sports version of the white label Calvin Klein line; and the ever popular Calvin Klein Jeans, the company's denimwear line that is licensed to the Warnaco Group, which designs and distributes intimate apparel, underwear, swimwear and sportswear worldwide.
The Calvin Klein design house is also dedicated to creating beautiful, classic high-end bedding. Calvin Klein home also designs bath accessories such as towels, bath rugs and whole themed collections by season.
Calvin Klein offers some of the most popular underwear collections in the industry. Often referred to as 'Calvins,' many celebrities have posed in the famous bottoms, including rapper turned actor Mark Wahlberg and English born model, Kate Moss. Intimates are among Calvin Klein's best-selling items, and they are available from most every line except the home and black label.
CK One is the Calvin Klein's revived lifestyle brand with a twist. This re-launched, more cutting-edge line has been expanded and now carries underwear, jeans and more androgynous clothing in sizes ranging from XS to XXXL, in addition to unisex fragrances. According to the designers, this line will be consumer driven, meaning that it will evolve based on customer feedback. With CK One, the Calvin Klein house designers are promoting individuality, and they say it is more about what consumers want to wear and less about what they've been told to wear.
