Calvin Klein made American men care about the label on their underwear
Men's underwear used to be plain white and bought in packs of three by a wife or mother. Calvin Klein turned it into something men chose by brand, even though almost nobody sees it. Boxer briefs, pioneered by the label's menswear chief in the early 1990s, helped seal the change.
It began in 1968 as a coat shop in New York's York Hotel, set up with $10,000 by Klein and his childhood friend Barry Schwartz. Klein, raised in the Bronx's Jewish community like Ralph Lauren, sold his first youthful coats and dresses through Bonwit Teller, and by September 1969 he was on the cover of Vogue. In 1973 he became the youngest winner of the Coty fashion critics' award, then took it twice more.
Licensing drove the money. By 1977 revenue had hit $30 million, with the name on scarves, furs, sunglasses and bedsheets, and each founder was taking home $4 million. Jeans came next: Klein claimed 200,000 pairs sold in their first week in 1978. The 1980s made the underwear and denim famous, and fragrances such as Obsession and Eternity followed.
Even so, the business nearly went bankrupt in 1992. Recovery came from underwear, perfume and the ck sportswear line, and especially from John Varvatos's boxer briefs, a cross between boxers and briefs, promoted in 1992 print ads starring Mark Wahlberg and later called one of the great apparel revolutions of the century.
Phillips-Van Heusen bought the company in a deal agreed in December 2002, worth about $700 million once future royalties were counted, and in 2013 it paid $2.8 billion for Warnaco, the big licensee that had been making the jeans and underwear. Raf Simons took charge of design in 2016, but the high-end runway line was shut in 2019 before a revival in 2025. Including licensees, the brand sold $9.3 billion worth of goods in 2022.
Source: Calvin Klein (fashion house)
