Calvin Klein:An American Icon

**Caemin** (0:10)
Morning, folks, and welcome to today's episode. It's called Calvin Klein, An American Icon. And look, I'm not into fashion, and I really did know anything about Klein before I did my research for this episode, but I found him to be such a fascinating character. Like this story about how he, together with Ralph Lauren and Ann Klein, who by the way is no relation, how they dragged American fashion out of the shadow of Paris and made it stand on its own two feet, how he didn't do it on his own, because Calvin Klein the business was always two people, Klein and Barry Schwartz, how Klein pioneered designer jeans, how he built his company while partying in Studio 54 and burning the candle at both ends, and how the business was just days from bankruptcy before David Geffen came to the rescue. And also, there is Klein's marketing genius. He was behind some of the most controversial and influential marketing campaigns of the 80s and 90s. He makes for a cracking story. Enjoy.
So Calvin Klein, born November 19th, 1942, in the Bronx, New York. His father, who had a grocery store there, he was an immigrant from Austria-Hungary, current-day Ukraine. But it was his mother and his grandmother. They were the biggest influences on Klein when he was young. He describes his mother as having this intense appreciation for design, for tailoring. She specifically liked beige, cream, white and brown colors. And as a result, Klein said that he spent the first 10 years of his life absorbing these colors, laying the foundation really for what would become his signature, minimalism. Then his grandmother, she ran a seamstress shop in the Bronx and she taught Klein how to draft, how to choose fabric, how to alter garments properly. So while other kids on the streets were playing sports, Klein was sketching designs and sewing. And then from his father, mother and grandmother, all of them instilled in Klein this huge work ethic. This is something we see throughout the story. As he said, I came from a family in which all they did was talk about work. Now when he left school, he went to the Fashion Institute of Technology, graduated in 1963 But crucially, while the other top graduates from his class went to Paris for haute couture apprenticeships, Klein didn't go. He stayed in New York because he believed that his vision, his aesthetic was fundamentally American. So he had a vision of what he wanted to make from the very get-go. Now he started working in various fashion businesses in New York, but the early years, he didn't enjoy it. A lot of his work entailed copying collections that came from Paris. And while this gave him great technical expertise at a very high level, he didn't like copying. He wanted to do his own designs.
Now he got married in 1964 to a textile designer just a year out of college when he was just 21 She was 20, which is way too young, in fairness. And they had a daughter. She was born in 1966
And when you combine the pressure of young fatherhood, providing for his family, together with the fact that he wasn't enjoying his work, Klein was at a bit of a crossroads. And this is when the second most important person in this story comes into play, Barry Schwartz. I had never heard of Schwartz. And he's a very, very low-profile guy. So Schwartz and Klein, they had been best friends since they were five years old. Both their fathers ran grocery stores. And Schwartz had been in the army, but had to return to run the family store when his father was murdered in a robbery in the store in 1964, when Schwartz was 21
So when Klein spoke to Schwartz about his frustration with his design career, initially Schwartz proposed that they start a grocery business together, start opening up loads of stores. Now, fortunately for Klein, he also went to his parents for advice. And Klein expected that his father, who was this practical, hardworking shopkeeper, that he would advise him to go with Schwartz's plan and that his mother would recommend that he stay in the fashion business. But that's not how it worked out. His mother said nothing. His father did all the talking. And here's a passage from an excellent Vanity Fair article on Klein that was a great resource for this episode. So here's the quote.
His father advised his son to stay the course and see his fashion vision through. Otherwise, he'd be sorry. Calvin recalls the conversation as the best advice anyone has ever given him.
What he was really telling me is it's not about money. It's about being happy and feeling good about what you're doing. I just sailed out of there.