WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 You know, I had a bit of an existential crisis 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.500 getting dressed this morning. I pulled open a 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.419 drawer, and there it was, that name. It was on 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:09.380 the waistband of my underwear. Then I went to 00:00:09.380 --> 00:00:11.519 the bathroom, and there it was again, on a bottle 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.160 of cologne. It's reached this point where the 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:18.620 letters C -A -L -V -I -N -K -L -E -I -N don't 00:00:18.620 --> 00:00:21.120 even register as a person's name anymore. It's 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.570 just... a noun. It's an object. It's a font. 00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:26.730 That is a very specific type of fame. It's the 00:00:26.730 --> 00:00:29.149 kind where the brand effectively cannibalizes 00:00:29.149 --> 00:00:31.649 the human being. Yes. You stop thinking about 00:00:31.649 --> 00:00:33.270 the creator and start thinking about the commodity. 00:00:33.469 --> 00:00:36.689 It's like Ford or Disney. You don't picture Henry 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:39.350 or Walt. You picture a truck or a mouse. Exactly. 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:42.049 But if you stop and ask the average person on 00:00:42.049 --> 00:00:45.530 the street, who is Calvin Klein? Not the brand, 00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:47.950 the guy. What do they say? I have no idea. What 00:00:47.950 --> 00:00:49.869 would they say? They probably picture a billboard 00:00:49.869 --> 00:00:52.630 model or maybe just a vague silhouette of a designer. 00:00:52.789 --> 00:00:55.189 They certainly don't picture a Jewish kid from 00:00:55.189 --> 00:00:57.829 the Bronx born during World War II. Which is 00:00:57.829 --> 00:00:59.729 a massive oversight because Calvin Richard Klein 00:00:59.729 --> 00:01:04.129 is not just a logo. He is a very real, very complex 00:01:04.129 --> 00:01:07.549 figure born in 1942 who didn't just participate 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:10.849 in the American sportswear industry. I mean, 00:01:10.849 --> 00:01:13.290 he fundamentally rewrote the operating manual 00:01:13.290 --> 00:01:15.269 for it. And that is exactly why we are here. 00:01:15.370 --> 00:01:17.609 The mission for this deep dive is to rescue the 00:01:17.609 --> 00:01:20.989 man from the marketing. We are going to peel 00:01:20.989 --> 00:01:24.609 off the labels, literally and figuratively, and 00:01:24.609 --> 00:01:27.209 look at the biography. We want to trace that 00:01:27.209 --> 00:01:29.709 arc from the Bronx tenements to the absolute 00:01:29.709 --> 00:01:33.250 apex of global high society. And we have to do 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:35.930 this by looking at the hard data. We aren't interested 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:38.230 in the gossip column rumors today. We are looking 00:01:38.230 --> 00:01:40.430 at the biographical records, the business filings, 00:01:40.450 --> 00:01:42.989 the real estate portfolios, and the verified 00:01:42.989 --> 00:01:45.810 timeline of his rise. Because when you strip 00:01:45.810 --> 00:01:47.930 away the airbrushing, the story is actually much 00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:49.549 more interesting. It's a story about hustle, 00:01:49.650 --> 00:01:51.650 about architecture, and about a very specific 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.189 vision of America. It's the ultimate American 00:01:54.189 --> 00:01:57.310 rise, really. I mean, we are looking at a trajectory 00:01:57.310 --> 00:02:00.629 that goes from a $10 ,000 loan to a global empire. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:04.439 But unlike some business stories where the founder 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:06.480 sort of flails around trying to find a product, 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:09.199 Klein seemed to have this singular obsession 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:12.719 from day one. The clean look. The clean look. 00:02:12.780 --> 00:02:15.259 That is the thread that ties the 1960s to the 00:02:15.259 --> 00:02:18.560 2000s. While the empire expanded into underwear, 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:24.500 jeans, perfume, home goods, the aesthetic, the 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:28.000 core DNA remained incredibly disciplined. So 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:29.699 let's unpack where that discipline came from. 00:02:29.909 --> 00:02:31.590 Let's go back to the beginning. We are dropping 00:02:31.590 --> 00:02:34.949 into the Bronx. It's November 19th, 1942. Calvin 00:02:34.949 --> 00:02:37.009 Richard Klein enters the world. And we have to 00:02:37.009 --> 00:02:39.150 set the stage here. This isn't the Bronx of hip 00:02:39.150 --> 00:02:41.229 -hop legend yet. Not at all. This is the Bronx 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.689 of the immigrant working class. Klein is the 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:46.569 son of Leo and Flora Klein. His mother's maiden 00:02:46.569 --> 00:02:49.030 name was Stern. And digging into the genealogy, 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:51.750 this is a classic European Jewish immigrant story. 00:02:52.069 --> 00:02:54.610 His father, Leo, wasn't just a guy from the neighborhood. 00:02:54.729 --> 00:02:56.889 He was an immigrant from Bojani. Which was in 00:02:56.889 --> 00:02:58.810 Austria -Hungary at the time. Right. Which is 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:01.090 now modern day Ukraine. And his mother's family 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:03.310 came from that same region, Galicia and Bukrovina. 00:03:03.469 --> 00:03:06.870 Why does that geography matter to a fashion designer? 00:03:07.870 --> 00:03:10.710 Because it speaks to the mindset of the household. 00:03:10.949 --> 00:03:13.590 This is the post -immigrant generation. You have 00:03:13.590 --> 00:03:17.270 parents who came from. instability in Europe 00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:19.569 to build a fortress of stability in New York. 00:03:20.030 --> 00:03:23.050 There is a specific, intense work ethic that 00:03:23.050 --> 00:03:25.349 permeates that environment. It's not just about 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:27.189 working hard. It's about establishing yourself. 00:03:27.349 --> 00:03:29.389 It's about validity. Right. It's that pressure 00:03:29.389 --> 00:03:31.830 to make it. You aren't just working for a paycheck. 00:03:31.949 --> 00:03:34.490 You are working to justify the journey your parents 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:37.659 took. But here's the thing that baffles me. He 00:03:37.659 --> 00:03:39.819 wasn't the only one. If you look at the map of 00:03:39.819 --> 00:03:42.060 the Bronx in that specific era, it's like there 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.219 was something in the water supply. The Bronx 00:03:44.219 --> 00:03:47.139 cohort. It is one of the most fascinating coincidences, 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:50.360 or perhaps not a coincidence at all, in fashion 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:53.569 history. It's statistically wild. You have Calvin 00:03:53.569 --> 00:03:56.349 Klein. You have Ralph Lauren, who was born Ralph 00:03:56.349 --> 00:03:58.969 Lifshitz, literally growing up in the same borough 00:03:58.969 --> 00:04:00.810 in the same Jewish community around the same 00:04:00.810 --> 00:04:03.729 time. You also have Robert Denning, another massive 00:04:03.729 --> 00:04:07.629 interior design influence. It forces us to ask, 00:04:07.689 --> 00:04:11.819 why there? Why, then? You have these titans of 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:14.960 American -style capital S who would go on to 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.100 define what America looked like to the rest of 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:19.779 the world. Right. Ralph Lauren defined the preppy, 00:04:19.899 --> 00:04:23.279 West -PY, Western aesthetic. Calvin Klein defined 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:26.560 the modern, urban, minimalist aesthetic. And 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:28.759 they were neighbors. It completely destroys the 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:30.560 idea that you need to be born in a Parisian salon 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:33.160 to understand luxury. In fact, it suggests the 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:35.290 opposite. It suggests that growing up in the 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:37.889 Bronx gave him a specific kind of hunger. They 00:04:37.889 --> 00:04:39.550 weren't inheriting a style. They were dreaming 00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:41.370 one up. That's a great way to put it. They were 00:04:41.370 --> 00:04:43.370 outsiders looking at the American dream and designing 00:04:43.370 --> 00:04:45.910 the costumes for it. Ralph Lauren designed the 00:04:45.910 --> 00:04:47.689 clothes for the life he wanted, the country clubs 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:49.850 he wasn't born into. Klein designed the clothes 00:04:49.850 --> 00:04:52.410 for the life he wanted, the sophisticated, clean, 00:04:52.670 --> 00:04:55.389 uncluttered urban existence. That is such a key 00:04:55.389 --> 00:04:57.730 distinction. They were creating their own avatars. 00:04:57.949 --> 00:05:01.569 So Klein is in this incubator. He attends JHS 00:05:01.569 --> 00:05:04.779 80. But he clearly isn't interested in just being 00:05:04.779 --> 00:05:07.540 a neighborhood kid. He decides to commute to 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:09.779 Manhattan for high school. Which is a big deal 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:12.600 for a teenager in that era. A big decision. Huge. 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:14.420 He goes to the High School of Art and Design. 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:17.920 That shows early intent. He wasn't stumbling 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:20.660 into fashion because he failed math. He knew 00:05:20.660 --> 00:05:24.000 he wanted to create. From there, he matriculates 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.759 to FET, the Fashion Institute of Technology, 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:29.560 the Harvard of the garment district. Well, the 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:32.100 Harvard of the trade, certainly. But here is 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:35.660 where the biography gets messy in a way I appreciate. 00:05:35.899 --> 00:05:38.100 It wasn't a straight line. He actually dropped 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:40.500 out. The dropout detail. I feel like every great 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:42.959 entrepreneur has this chapter. After his first 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.319 year, he left for six months. The records don't 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:47.920 give us a dramatic reason, no scandalous expulsion 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.939 or tragic accident. He just stopped. Yeah. But 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:52.699 he did eventually return to finish the degree. 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:54.899 It shows resilience. And I'm guessing the school 00:05:54.899 --> 00:05:57.079 eventually came around. Oh, more than came around. 00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.620 He received an honorary doctorate from FIT in 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:03.300 2003. So they forgave him. So he has the degree. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.300 He has the Bronx ambition. Now, in the movie 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:08.139 version of his life, this is where he launches 00:06:08.139 --> 00:06:10.160 the brand and becomes a star, right? Absolutely 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.339 not. And this is the part of the story that modern 00:06:12.339 --> 00:06:14.579 entrepreneurs often ignore. We're talking about 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:18.500 the apprentice years. Right. 1962 to 1967. This 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.100 is five years of absolute grind. Five years is 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:23.399 a long time when you are in your early 20s. It's 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:25.779 an eternity. And he wasn't designing couture 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.459 gowns for celebrities. He apprenticed at a place 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:31.639 called Dan Milstein. Sources describe it as an 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:35.339 old -line cloak -and -suit manufacturer. Cloak 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:37.480 -and -suit. Can we just pause on that term? It 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:39.399 sounds so Dickensian. It sounds like they were 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:41.800 making garments for chimney sweeps. It does sound 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:44.459 archaic, but that's important. The New York fashion 00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:48.199 industry in 1962 wasn't about art. It was industrial 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:50.800 manufacturing. It was the garment district. It 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.480 was loud. It smelled like steam and wool dust. 00:06:53.660 --> 00:06:56.300 And it was about efficiency. Cloak -and -suit 00:06:56.300 --> 00:06:58.480 meant mass -producing outerwear for the average 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.870 consumer. So he's not sitting in a studio with 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:03.769 a glass of champagne sketching muses. No, he's 00:07:03.769 --> 00:07:06.050 learning construction. He's learning how a shoulder 00:07:06.050 --> 00:07:09.149 seam bears weight. He's learning how fabric drapes 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:11.850 when it's mass produced. He spent those five 00:07:11.850 --> 00:07:15.310 years working at various shops, usually for tyrannical 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:18.389 bosses, learning the physics of clothing. He 00:07:18.389 --> 00:07:21.769 is a technician first, an artist second. That 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:23.990 technical base must be why his clothes eventually 00:07:23.990 --> 00:07:26.509 fit so well. He didn't just draw them, he knew 00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:29.189 how to build them. Precisely. You can't execute 00:07:29.189 --> 00:07:31.550 minimalism, which leaves you nowhere to hide 00:07:31.550 --> 00:07:33.949 if you don't understand construction. Everything 00:07:33.949 --> 00:07:37.069 has to be perfect. Okay, so we get to 1968. He's 00:07:37.069 --> 00:07:39.949 done his time. He's ready to launch. And this 00:07:39.949 --> 00:07:42.250 is where the story pivots on what I call a sliding 00:07:42.250 --> 00:07:45.149 doors moment. It involves his childhood friend, 00:07:45.350 --> 00:07:47.389 Barry K. Schwartz. This is one of the great what 00:07:47.389 --> 00:07:50.300 -if scenarios in business history. Barry Schwartz 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.160 and Calvin Klein have known each other since 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.879 they were kids. Schwartz has some capital, and 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:56.879 he wants to start a business. But his idea has 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.279 absolutely nothing to do with fashion. Nothing. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:01.560 He wants to buy a supermarket. A grocery store. 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:04.699 In Harlem. A grocery store in Harlem. Stop and 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:08.180 think about that. We're teetering on a timeline 00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:11.939 where Barry Schwartz is managing a grocery store 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:15.160 in Harlem. And maybe Calvin Klein is the produce 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:18.060 manager. Or maybe Klein is just a guy who designs 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:20.180 coats for someone else for the rest of his life. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.620 It was incredibly close to happening. But Klein 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:25.959 intervenes. He goes to Schwartz and makes a pitch. 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.899 He says, essentially, do not buy the supermarket. 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.720 Give the money to me. Let's start a fashion label. 00:08:32.110 --> 00:08:34.450 Imagine the guts it takes to say that, hey, I 00:08:34.450 --> 00:08:36.450 know people need food, which is a guaranteed 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.110 business, but give me your 10 grand so I can 00:08:39.110 --> 00:08:41.429 make coats. And he had a very specific vision 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:43.090 to back it up. He didn't just say, I want to 00:08:43.090 --> 00:08:45.629 make clothes. He told Schwartz he wanted to design 00:08:45.629 --> 00:08:48.610 medium -priced clothes with a clean look. That 00:08:48.610 --> 00:08:50.769 phrase again, medium -priced clothes with a clean 00:08:50.769 --> 00:08:53.269 look. It's so pragmatic. It's a business plan, 00:08:53.389 --> 00:08:56.289 not an artist's manifesto. And that pragmatism 00:08:56.289 --> 00:08:58.679 is probably why Schwartz said yes. The quote 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:01.840 is legendary. Klein asks for the money and Schwartz 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:04.080 just said, you've got it. You've got it. Ten 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.539 thousand dollars. Boom. That decision changed 00:09:06.539 --> 00:09:09.360 the global fashion landscape. Schwartz diverted 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:11.820 the funds from the grocery sector to the garment 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:16.200 sector. They launched in 1968 and Schwartz took 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.919 the role of business manager. Which is the unsung 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:21.700 hero role here because Schwartz handling the 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:25.919 money meant. Klein didn't have to. Exactly. Creatives 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.000 often fail because they get bogged down in logistics, 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:31.179 in spreadsheets. Schwartz built a wall around 00:09:31.179 --> 00:09:33.659 Klein, allowing him to focus entirely on the 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.279 aesthetic. But let's be clear about the glamour 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:39.340 level here. Okay. Their first headquarters was 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:41.379 a hotel room. A hotel room. They were renting 00:09:41.379 --> 00:09:43.639 a room, putting the coats on racks, and hoping 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:46.440 buyers would stop by. It was scrappy. And then 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:49.679 the lucky break. The pretty woman moment, but 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.840 for a coat designer. The Bonwit Teller moment. 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:54.340 Bondwood Teller was the department store for 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:57.000 high -end fashion in New York at the time. Story 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:59.539 goes that a buyer basically stumbled upon Klein's 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:02.000 coats. He just happened to be there. Some accounts 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.840 say he accidentally got off on the wrong floor 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:06.000 of the hotel. Others say he was just wandering. 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:09.539 But he saw the coats, he stopped, and he placed 00:10:09.539 --> 00:10:12.659 an order. That's the spark. But a spark isn't 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:16.269 a fire. To get a fire, you need oxygen. And in 00:10:16.269 --> 00:10:18.929 the New York fashion world, oxygen means social 00:10:18.929 --> 00:10:21.950 connections. You need a gatekeeper. And Klein 00:10:21.950 --> 00:10:25.590 found the ultimate gatekeeper. Baron de Gunzberg. 00:10:25.789 --> 00:10:28.470 The Baron. It sounds like a character from a 00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:30.809 Wes Anderson movie. He essentially was. Baron 00:10:30.809 --> 00:10:33.350 Nicholas de Gunzberg. He was an editor at Vogue 00:10:33.350 --> 00:10:36.190 and Harper's Bazaar. He was European aristocracy, 00:10:36.409 --> 00:10:39.090 deeply embedded in the Manhattan social elite. 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:41.990 He took a liking to Klein. So you have the Bronx 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:44.590 kid who knows how to sew a coat and the European 00:10:44.590 --> 00:10:47.409 baron who knows which fork to use. It's a Pygmalion 00:10:47.409 --> 00:10:50.049 dynamic. The baron became his mentor. He didn't 00:10:50.049 --> 00:10:51.850 just teach him about style. He taught him about 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:54.129 lifestyle. What does that even mean in a practical 00:10:54.129 --> 00:10:56.309 sense? He introduced Klein to the right people, 00:10:56.429 --> 00:10:59.330 the editors, the socialites. He gave Klein the 00:10:59.330 --> 00:11:01.889 stamp of approval. He basically vouched for him. 00:11:01.990 --> 00:11:04.610 And in that world, the stamp is everything. Suddenly, 00:11:04.649 --> 00:11:06.649 Klein wasn't just a manufacturer. He was the 00:11:06.649 --> 00:11:09.529 protege. And the reaction to his first major 00:11:09.529 --> 00:11:12.389 showing was explosive. The press immediately 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:14.929 dubbed him the new Yves Saint Laurent. Whoa, 00:11:15.129 --> 00:11:18.549 hold on. That is a massive comparison. Yves Saint 00:11:18.549 --> 00:11:21.070 Laurent was god in the fashion world in the late 00:11:21.070 --> 00:11:24.090 60s. He was French couture royalty. Was Klein 00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:26.590 actually that good that fast? Or was the American 00:11:26.590 --> 00:11:29.389 press just desperate for a hero? It was a bit 00:11:29.389 --> 00:11:32.370 of both. The America Press was desperate for 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:35.610 a homegrown star who could rival Paris. But technically, 00:11:35.850 --> 00:11:39.070 yes, Klein was delivering. And he was delivering 00:11:39.070 --> 00:11:42.029 something YSL wasn't. The clean look. Right. 00:11:42.070 --> 00:11:44.710 Think about 1968 visually. What do you see? I 00:11:44.710 --> 00:11:47.190 see hippies. I see tie -dye. I see fringe. I 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:49.490 see paisley. I see chaotic colors and excess. 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.370 Exactly. The counterculture aesthetic was loud, 00:11:52.590 --> 00:11:55.490 messy, and textured. For Klein to come out in 00:11:55.490 --> 00:11:58.509 1968 and say, no, we're doing beige, we're doing 00:11:58.509 --> 00:12:01.169 gray, we're doing sharp tailoring, no ruffles, 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:03.990 no velvet, was incredibly risky. It was a rejection 00:12:03.990 --> 00:12:06.149 of the zeitgeist. It was counterculture. It was 00:12:06.149 --> 00:12:08.649 a return to adult sophistication. He was betting 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:10.529 that American women were tired of dressing like 00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:12.629 flower children and wanted to dress like women. 00:12:12.710 --> 00:12:16.029 And he was right. So the 60s launch him, but 00:12:16.029 --> 00:12:19.490 the 70s. The 70s orbit him into a different stratosphere. 00:12:19.870 --> 00:12:21.990 This is where we start talking about coats and 00:12:21.990 --> 00:12:23.549 start talking about the product that changed 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:27.889 the world. Jeans. 1974. The turning point. Before 00:12:27.889 --> 00:12:29.830 this moment, jeans were workwear, right? Or they 00:12:29.830 --> 00:12:31.690 were for teenagers. They weren't serious. They 00:12:31.690 --> 00:12:35.789 were utility. Levi's, Wrangler's, Lee. You wore 00:12:35.789 --> 00:12:38.549 them to fix a car or go to a protest. They weren't 00:12:38.549 --> 00:12:40.649 fashion. You certainly didn't wear them to a 00:12:40.649 --> 00:12:42.870 nice dinner. And Klein looks at this denim fabric 00:12:42.870 --> 00:12:45.429 and thinks. I can charge a premium for this. 00:12:45.649 --> 00:12:47.970 He realized that if you cut denim like you cut 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:49.950 a couture trouser, if you focus on the fit, the 00:12:49.950 --> 00:12:52.909 lift, the silhouette, it becomes sexy. He introduced 00:12:52.909 --> 00:12:55.330 the tight -fitting signature jean. And the response 00:12:55.330 --> 00:12:59.429 was insane. Insane is the right word. In the 00:12:59.429 --> 00:13:02.029 first week of sales, just the first week, they 00:13:02.029 --> 00:13:05.730 grossed $200 ,000. $200 ,000. In 1974, let's 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:07.889 do the inflation math on that, that is over a 00:13:07.889 --> 00:13:10.289 million dollars in a week on a brand new product 00:13:10.289 --> 00:13:13.350 category. It was a gold rush. It proved that 00:13:13.350 --> 00:13:15.750 the Calvin Klein name on the back pocket was 00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:18.529 worth more than the denim itself. It marked the 00:13:18.529 --> 00:13:21.610 transition of jeans from a commodity to a status 00:13:21.610 --> 00:13:23.649 symbol. This is really the birth of designer 00:13:23.649 --> 00:13:26.929 denim. Every pair of $300 jeans you see today 00:13:26.929 --> 00:13:30.350 traces its lineage back to that week in 1974. 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:33.789 And importantly, he didn't sacrifice his critical 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:36.529 reputation for this cash grab. Usually when a 00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:38.690 designer goes mass market, the critics turn up 00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:41.370 their noses. They call it selling out. That didn't 00:13:41.370 --> 00:13:44.019 happen here. The opposite happened. In 1974, 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.659 the same year the jeans exploded. Klein made 00:13:47.659 --> 00:13:50.360 history at the CFDA Awards, the Council of Fashion 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:53.080 Designers of America. This is the Oscars of fashion. 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.539 And he became the first designer in history to 00:13:55.539 --> 00:13:58.139 win the award for outstanding design in menswear 00:13:58.139 --> 00:14:01.179 and womenswear in the same year. That is a flex. 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:03.820 That is him saying I can sell millions of jeans 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:06.179 to teenagers and I can still out design everyone 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:08.379 in the high end salons. He was untouchable. He 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:11.399 won again in 81, 83, 93. He got the Golden Plate 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:13.899 Award in 1991. He was on the international best 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:16.320 dressed list. The industry respected him just 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:19.379 as much as the mall shoppers loved him. So professionally, 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:22.559 he is a juggernaut. But I want to weave in the 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:25.440 personal side here, because often when you see 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.840 a rocket ship taking off like this, there is 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:31.340 turbulence on board. The timeline of his personal 00:14:31.340 --> 00:14:34.500 life tracks almost eerily perfectly with his 00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:36.899 business milestones. He starts out with a very 00:14:36.899 --> 00:14:39.779 traditional narrative. He marries Jane Center 00:14:39.779 --> 00:14:44.299 in 1964. This is the before fame era. Jane Center 00:14:44.299 --> 00:14:47.519 was the literal girl next door. They grew up 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:49.519 neighbors, went to the same high school. But 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.519 they didn't date then. No. Classic misconnection. 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:55.809 They met properly in college. They married right 00:14:55.809 --> 00:14:57.710 as he was starting his apprenticeship. So she 00:14:57.710 --> 00:14:59.629 was there for the grind. Right. She was there 00:14:59.629 --> 00:15:01.409 for the hotel room office. They have a daughter, 00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:03.850 Marcy Klein. And I have to take a detour here 00:15:03.850 --> 00:15:06.549 because this blew my mind. Marcy Klein is a legend 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:08.809 in her own right. She really is. She's not just 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:11.169 a nepo baby coasting on the name. She became 00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:12.990 one of the most powerful producers in television 00:15:12.990 --> 00:15:15.190 comedy. Like what? What does she do? She produced 00:15:15.190 --> 00:15:17.149 Saturday Night Live. She was a key producer on 00:15:17.149 --> 00:15:19.870 30 Rock. So if you love Tina Fey, you partly 00:15:19.870 --> 00:15:22.269 have Calvin Klein to thank for producing her 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:25.960 producer. In a roundabout way, yes. But looking 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:29.580 at the marriage to Jane, it ends in 1974. 1974, 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:33.460 the exact year the jeans launched. Exactly. The 00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:35.639 year the business went supernova, the marriage 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:37.919 collapsed. It's hard not to see a correlation. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.100 The lifestyle changed. The demands changed. He 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:43.519 wasn't just a coatmaker anymore. He was a global 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:47.559 celebrity. And then the 80s arrive, and he enters 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:51.240 his power couple era. He marries Kelly Rector 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:54.309 in 1986. And this is a very different dynamic. 00:15:54.710 --> 00:15:56.929 Kelly was his assistant initially. Oh, interesting. 00:15:57.230 --> 00:15:59.029 They fell in love and they got married in Rome 00:15:59.029 --> 00:16:01.570 during a buying trip. That is the most 80s fashion 00:16:01.570 --> 00:16:04.309 sentence I have ever heard. Married in Rome during 00:16:04.309 --> 00:16:06.649 a buying trip. It fits the brand perfectly. Yeah. 00:16:06.750 --> 00:16:08.649 Kelly became a very well -known socialite photographer. 00:16:08.970 --> 00:16:10.470 They were a stunning couple. They looked like 00:16:10.470 --> 00:16:11.649 they belonged in the ads. They were together 00:16:11.649 --> 00:16:14.809 for a long time, 20 years before divorcing in 00:16:14.809 --> 00:16:17.889 2006. And then we see another evolution. In the 00:16:17.889 --> 00:16:20.789 later years, specifically the 2010s, Klein's 00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:23.899 public life shifts again. He starts living openly 00:16:23.899 --> 00:16:25.960 as a gay man, or at least in relationships with 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:29.100 men. The sources show a clear shift. From 2010 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:32.700 to 2012, he was in a relationship with Nicholas 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:35.220 Gruber. And this made headlines not just because 00:16:35.220 --> 00:16:37.019 it was a man, but because of the demographics. 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:39.899 Nicholas Gruber was an ex -porn star, and he 00:16:39.899 --> 00:16:42.340 was nearly 50 years younger than Klein. There 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:46.460 was a 47 -year age gap. 47 years, that is, that's 00:16:46.460 --> 00:16:48.860 a whole lifetime. The tabloids had a field day. 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:52.679 But later, in 2016, he began a relationship with 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.649 Kevin Baker, a model. It's fascinating to look 00:16:55.649 --> 00:16:58.450 at this arc. You go from the traditional heterosexual 00:16:58.450 --> 00:17:01.649 marriage in the 60s to the high society marriage 00:17:01.649 --> 00:17:05.130 in the 80s to this very open, modern queer life 00:17:05.130 --> 00:17:07.630 in the 2000s. It's like his biography charts 00:17:07.630 --> 00:17:11.130 the history of LGBTQ acceptance in America. He 00:17:11.130 --> 00:17:13.109 lived through the eras where you had to be discreet, 00:17:13.130 --> 00:17:15.069 where a lavender marriage might be necessary 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:17.289 for business. And he survived long enough to 00:17:17.289 --> 00:17:19.009 reach an era where he could just be himself. 00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:22.269 Right. And through it all, the brand never suffered. 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:24.599 In fact, the brand's sexual ambiguity was always 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:26.640 part of the appeal. Speaking of appeal, let's 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:28.940 talk about the lifestyle. Because Calvin Klein 00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:31.079 didn't just sell the clothes, he lived the movie. 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:33.380 If you wanted to find the center of American 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.339 culture in the late 70s, you went to one place. 00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:40.500 The Calvin Klein House on Fire Island. Fire Island 00:17:40.500 --> 00:17:43.140 Pines. The Pines. This wasn't just a beach house. 00:17:43.259 --> 00:17:46.099 This was the clubhouse for the cultural elite. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:48.440 Who was hanging out there? Everyone who mattered. 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.440 Andy Warhol was a regular. Steve Rubell, the 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.640 owner of Studio 54. David Geffen. So you have 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.660 the king of art, Warhol, the king of nightlife, 00:17:57.779 --> 00:18:00.759 Rubell, the king of music, Geffen, and the king 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:03.599 of fashion, Klein, all sitting on a deck in Fire 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:05.940 Island. Probably watching the sunset and deciding 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:07.220 what the rest of the world will be talking about 00:18:07.220 --> 00:18:09.480 next week. Klein was right at the center of that 00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.940 disco. Pop art nexus. He wasn't an observer. 00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:14.619 He was a participant. He's living the life he's 00:18:14.619 --> 00:18:17.400 selling. Exactly. He was partying in Studio 54 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.039 at night and designing the jeans everyone wore 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:22.720 to Studio 54 the next day. The feedback loop 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.799 there is incredible. But as he got older and 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:29.059 richer, the real estate shifted from party beach 00:18:29.059 --> 00:18:32.859 house to something more monumental. We have to 00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:34.559 talk about the Southampton estate. The concrete 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.880 bunker. That's a harsh way to describe a masterpiece, 00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:41.319 but yes. In 2003, he got a massive oceanfront 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:44.559 estate in Southampton. It was a historic property. 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:46.779 Most people would have renovated it, put up some 00:18:46.779 --> 00:18:49.380 shingle siding, kept it traditional. But this 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:52.039 is Calvin Cleanline's client. He demolished it. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:55.279 He wiped it off the map. And in its place, he 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.680 built a $75 million glass and concrete mansion. 00:18:59.339 --> 00:19:01.440 I've seen pictures of this place. It looks like 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:04.319 a supervillain's lair, but in a chic way. It's 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.180 severe. It's minimalist. It's the architectural 00:19:07.180 --> 00:19:10.000 embodiment of his clothing philosophy. No crown 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.880 molding, no chintz, no clutter. Just light, space, 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:15.960 and structure. So his house looks like his underwear. 00:19:16.259 --> 00:19:18.500 It proves that minimalism wasn't just a marketing 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:21.099 gimmick for him. It was how he wanted to live. 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:23.000 He wanted to control his environment completely. 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.319 It's amazing consistency, whether it's a pair 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:28.369 of... boxer briefs or a $75 million house, he 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.230 wants it stripped down. He also expanded to the 00:19:30.230 --> 00:19:32.730 West Coast. He bought a place in L .A. for $25 00:19:32.730 --> 00:19:36.130 million in 2015. He had a Miami Beach mansion 00:19:36.130 --> 00:19:39.190 that sold for over $12 million. He essentially 00:19:39.190 --> 00:19:42.130 created these temples of minimalism on every 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:44.670 coast. Now, I want to loop back to where we started, 00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:48.390 the idea of the name becoming a noun. There is 00:19:48.390 --> 00:19:51.049 one specific moment in pop culture history that 00:19:51.049 --> 00:19:53.640 cements this. And I think it's the moment he 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:56.200 officially won the culture war. Back to the Future. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:59.259 1985. The biggest movie in the world. It's the 00:19:59.259 --> 00:20:01.960 ultimate litmus test. For the three people listening 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:04.640 who haven't seen it, Marty McFly goes back to 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:08.220 1955. He gets hit by a car. He wakes up in his 00:20:08.220 --> 00:20:10.799 teenage mother's bedroom. She thinks his name 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:14.059 is Calvin. Why? Because she looked at his underwear. 00:20:14.259 --> 00:20:16.059 She says, that is your name, isn't it? Calvin 00:20:16.059 --> 00:20:18.000 Klein. It's written all over your underwear. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:21.220 Now analyze that joke. For that joke to work 00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:23.900 in a mass market blockbuster, the screenwriters 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:27.079 had to be 100 % certain that every single person 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:31.039 in the movie theater, grandmas, teenagers, dads 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.259 in the Midwest, knew that Calvin Klein was a 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:35.440 brand of underwear. If even 10 % of the audience 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:37.980 didn't know the brand, the joke fails. Exactly. 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.849 It implies total market saturation. It implies 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:43.450 that Calvin Klein had become a synonym for underwear. 00:20:43.690 --> 00:20:45.650 That is the moment the man officially became 00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:48.910 a household utility. It's free advertising worth 00:20:48.910 --> 00:20:51.549 millions enshrined in cinema history forever. 00:20:51.849 --> 00:20:54.890 And Klein clearly loved it. He wasn't precious 00:20:54.890 --> 00:20:56.930 about his image. He engaged with the comedy. 00:20:57.089 --> 00:21:00.309 He did. He showed up on TV. There was a fictionalized 00:21:00.309 --> 00:21:02.789 version of him in Seinfeld, the episode The Pick, 00:21:02.970 --> 00:21:05.789 where Kramer pitches him the beach cologne idea. 00:21:06.109 --> 00:21:09.450 Right. But Klein actually appeared as himself. 00:21:10.089 --> 00:21:12.869 On 30 Rock. In the episode The Bubble. Which 00:21:12.869 --> 00:21:14.910 brings it all full circle back to his daughter 00:21:14.910 --> 00:21:18.230 Marcy. It shows a level of self -awareness. He 00:21:18.230 --> 00:21:20.809 knew he was an icon and he was willing to wink 00:21:20.809 --> 00:21:22.690 at the audience about it. So when we look at 00:21:22.690 --> 00:21:25.369 this entire stack from the Austrian -Hungarian 00:21:25.369 --> 00:21:28.210 roots to the Bronx tenements. To the design school 00:21:28.210 --> 00:21:31.170 dropout phase and the cloak and soup grind. To 00:21:31.170 --> 00:21:33.410 the sliding doors moment with Barry Schwartz 00:21:33.410 --> 00:21:35.490 and the supermarket money. To the invention of 00:21:35.490 --> 00:21:37.630 designer jeans and the conquest of the art world 00:21:37.630 --> 00:21:40.500 with the CFDA Awards. And finally, to the concrete 00:21:40.500 --> 00:21:43.180 mansions and the pop culture domination. It is 00:21:43.180 --> 00:21:46.500 a massive, sprawling life. But what is the takeaway? 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.400 What is the nugget we hold on to? For me, it's 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:52.440 about the power of editing. Calvin Klein's genius 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:55.519 wasn't necessarily adding things. It was taking 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:59.160 them away. He looked at the chaos of the 60s 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:02.259 and deleted the noise. He looked at a pair of 00:22:02.259 --> 00:22:05.220 jeans and deleted the utility to find the sex 00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:07.839 appeal. He looked at a house and deleted the 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:10.019 walls to find the light. He edited his way to 00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:12.880 the top. Precisely. But I want to leave the listener 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:15.700 with one final, slightly haunting thought. Hit 00:22:15.700 --> 00:22:18.720 me. Go back to that supermarket in Harlem. Barry 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.279 Schwartz was ready to buy it. It was a done deal 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.359 in his mind. If that conversation had gone differently, 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:27.460 if Schwartz had been just a little more scubborn 00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:30.180 or Klein a little less persuasive. Then Calvin 00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:32.259 Klein is just a guy working in the garment district. 00:22:32.420 --> 00:22:33.880 And you are wearing different underwear right 00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:37.180 now. And Back to the Future has a different joke. 00:22:37.299 --> 00:22:40.660 And the entire aesthetic of 90s minimalism, the 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:43.740 Kate Moss era, the clean lines, maybe never happens. 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:46.359 The history of culture hangs by a thread. Or 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:48.440 in this case, a waistband. I'm never going to 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:50.119 look at a grocery store the same way again. It 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:51.880 makes you wonder how many geniuses are currently 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:53.720 stocking shelves because their Barry Schwartz 00:22:53.720 --> 00:22:56.359 said no. It's a sobering thought. Thank you so 00:22:56.359 --> 00:22:58.140 much for breaking this down with me. This was 00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:01.299 a true deep dive. My pleasure. And to everyone 00:23:01.299 --> 00:23:04.319 listening. Check your labels. There's a story 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.099 stitched in there. We'll catch you on the next 00:23:06.099 --> 00:23:06.539 deep dive.