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Calvin Klein (born November 19, 1942, The Bronx, New York City, United States) as Richard Klein, is a well-known fashion designer. His name is also a brand name of clothing marketed by his clothing company, which was launched in 1968.
Calvin Klein was raised in the Jewish immigrant community in the Bronx, New York. Calvin Klein's first success in the fashion industry was when he launched his first jeans line in the 1970s.
The Calvin Klein company, like many in the fashion industry, is known for its eye-catching advertising. It is noted by many conservative organizations for its use of seemingly-underage models in pseudo-provocative poses.
In addition to clothing, Calvin Klein also gave his name to a range of perfumes, including CK One and CK Be (fragrances for everyone, regardless of gender), now owned by Unilever.
He is divorced and the father of a daughter, Marcy, although he is widely known to be a bisexual, if not a homosexual in denial.
Advertising
- Calvin Klein's advertising campaigns are frequently controversial, but prove this can be very successful - to the point of making a blitz career. One of his male underwear models, Mark Wahlberg, went on to fame as hip hop star 'Marky Mark', launching himself into the Hollywood scene as well. Another Hollywood star owing his respectable career to the Calvin Klein advertisements is Antonio Sabato Jr..
Such blatant exposure of male flesh (before only girls were commonly used as sexy attributes), sometimes even completely bared, became a major trend in advertising world-wide except where censorship or the taste of the public don't allow it.
- They also play with emerging technologies. When advertising cKone perfume in 1999, they employed a very unusual and groundbreaking campaign that displayed e-mail addresses in print advertisements, targeted at teenagers (such as anna@ckone.com or nick@ckone.com). When these teens mailed these addresses, they would be placed on a mailing list that sent them mails with vague details about the models' lives, with fake details meant to make them more relatable. These mails came at unpredictable intervals, and were supposed to give readers the feeling that they had some connection with these characters. Though the mailing lists were discontinued in 2002, the campaign has inspired similar marketing tactics for movies and other retail products.
See also
External link
- Extensive archive of Calvin Klein ads
- Calvin Klein Info
- Dying Scent of an E-mail Advertising Campaign (Wired, Feb. 13, 2002)