Mr. Calvin Klein!

Summary

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The Run-Through with Vogue

Episode: Mr. Calvin Klein!
Date: September 11, 2025
Host: Nicole Phelps | Guest: Calvin Klein

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Brief Overview

In this special episode, Vogue Runway director Nicole Phelps sits down for an extensive, candid conversation with the legendary designer Calvin Klein. Now 82 and more than two decades into retirement, Mr. Klein reflects on his groundbreaking career, from humble beginnings in the Bronx to pioneering American minimalism and fundamentally reshaping fashion advertising. The conversation explores his creative philosophy, the origins of his iconic brand, unforgettable ad campaigns, business decisions, personal drive, and lasting influence on the industry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Being Back at Calvin Klein, and Reflections on Retirement

• Veronica Leoni's Debut Show:

  • Calvin attended the Calvin Klein show by new creative director Veronica Leoni, returning to the brand's fashion show front row for the first time since retiring.
    • “It was a little odd sitting there... but exciting to see clothes that were in the feeling of what the brand stands for, but yet taken another step.” (02:32–03:21)
  • Admired Leoni’s talent: “She’s very good, she’s very talented and I’m sure it’s going to do extremely well.” (03:24–03:38)

• Perpetual Reinvention:

  • Calvin resists nostalgia, always focusing on what’s next.
    • “I tended not to look back. My attitude was always, what can we do next that we haven’t done? Or what can we do better?” (03:53–04:40)
  • Advice for students: “Take risk and take a chance and believe in yourself, have confidence… you need all of that to keep doing whatever it is you do.” (04:41–05:09)

2. Early Life and Influences

• Fashion Roots in the Bronx:

  • Fashion was in his family — his mother was fashion-obsessed, grandmother a dressmaker.
    • “She spent all my dad’s money on clothes… My grandmother made clothes for people.” (06:56–07:24)
  • Early passion: “As long as I can remember, I was always interested.” (07:34–07:44)

• Cultural Influences:

  • Inspired by film and Hollywood icons like James Dean—“often the way they dressed in films.” (08:37–09:25)
  • New York upbringing: “Being born here, you are immersed in a language and a culture that exists nowhere else.” (09:58–10:45)

• Practical Training & Early Jobs:

  • Studied art and design in progressive New York schools, attended FIT.
  • Early gig as a copy boy for Women’s Wear Daily—“you just soak it up... It was a wonderful experience.” (11:39–12:24)

3. The Breakthrough: Launching Calvin Klein (1968)

• Bonwit Teller Discovery:

  • Story of his first collection and its serendipitous discovery by Bonwit Teller execs:
    • “Purely by accident, the elevator door opens. A man steps out and into my showroom... I showed him my few samples.” (19:24–19:49)
  • Notable moment: Bonwit Teller’s Mildred Custin offers him double what he asked, he refuses exclusivity out of principle:
    • “It just seemed like this is the right thing to do. And I knew she would understand, and she did.” (21:29–22:32)

• Early Aesthetic: Architectural, Bulletproof, Streamlined

  • “The idea of bulletproof, the fabrics were... strong, they were stiff... they were architectural.” (23:56–24:17)
  • “The idea of them being modern is the absence of decoration.” (24:31–24:58)

• Relationship with Vogue

  • Early Vogue support; first cover in 1969.
    • “It was a total different time... Nikki was a great, wonderful influence on my work, my life.” (25:25–27:06)

4. Partnerships, Peers, and New York’s Impact

• Barry Schwartz:

  • Klein details his lifelong partnership—“he started paying for [the samples], and the business partnership began right from day one.” (27:57–29:33)

• Donna Karan & Ralph Lauren:

  • On growing up in the same Bronx neighborhood: “He always dressed funny. I mean, he dressed the part that he played all these years and still does. I was dressing like James Dean.” (29:50–30:11)
  • On New York’s competitive, creative environment: “It’s something about New York. It’s something about being competitive. It’s something about being Jewish, all of those aspects… But you have to have confidence.” (30:23–30:55)

• Sportswear Revolution:

  • “The women who really impressed me and influenced me were the ones who were busy working…. American designers were influenced by American women and still are.” (15:45–16:19)

5. Game-Changing Products: Jeans, T-Shirts, and the Power of the Logo

• Logo T-Shirt Origins:

  • Debunked story of early CK T-shirts for fashion show staff—Klein can’t remember specifics but endorses the tale (34:29–35:14)
  • Philosophy: “I always liked the idea... of having the name associated with products that are not expensive... that’s why I started doing jeans, because I loved them.” (35:19–35:55)

• Jeans & Cultural Timing

  • “Often it takes just one designer in fashion to start something, and then everyone... That happened with underwear, too.” (36:12–36:44)

6. Advertising That Changed the Game

• Brooke Shields and “Nothing Comes Between Me and My Calvins”

  • Intentionally provocative, knew exactly what they were doing with the campaign (37:21–37:48)
  • “The writing had so much to do with it. When she said, ‘You know, what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.’ People got crazy.” (38:35–39:09)
  • Impact: “It sold denim like mad, because that created the image that we wanted… your parents wouldn’t like it.” (39:09–39:42)

• Building an In-House Ad Agency

  • Ran CRK as his own ad agency, obsessed with ad placement and messaging.
    • “I used to watch TV just to decide where to advertise... I chose all the space on air and in print for fragrance, for denim, for underwear.” (40:08–40:41)

• Studio 54:

  • Calvin recalls the legendary era: “It was a period of freedom, every kind of freedom, and it’s never really been the same again.” (41:04–41:48)

7. Fragrance and Underwear—Expanding the Brand

• Revolutionizing Fragrance:

  • Fragrance as identity: “A woman bought a fragrance and she attached her identity to the fragrance... That stopped. And we and other American designers maybe stopped it.” (42:58–43:55)
  • On campaign controversies: “I took chances.” (44:32–44:46)

• Sexualization and Sensuality in Advertising

  • “Calvin’s pictures were always about skin.” (48:00–48:31, Bruce Weber quote)
  • Underwear innovation: combining men’s elastic branding with women’s pieces—a pivotal moment.
    • “No one did anything like that... There was a tremendous overlap between what we were doing for both sexes.” (48:56–50:12)
  • CK runway shows with real people (not just models): “It was the image... not how she turned her body and did a half U turn... Just walk like you’re walking down the street.” (51:19–52:34)

8. American Minimalism and Industry Impact

• Vogue calls him "Mr. Clean":

  • “Vogue has a good way of crystallizing all of these thoughts.” (53:31–53:37)

• Influencing Others:

  • Calvin doesn’t track his imitators: “When you’re not doing it day to day... it becomes a little less important.” (53:56–54:13)
  • The relentless pursuit of perfection fostered a highly intense environment: “There is no perfection. But we strive for something that you can’t get anyway... that creates sometimes an atmosphere... that’s tough.” (55:00–55:41)

• Legacy and Brand Evolution After Selling the Company

  • Klein sold his brand in the early 2000s; he underestimated the difficulty of not being able to control all the creative decisions:
    • “I was used to running the show and suddenly offering an opinion and not everyone running to do it... was a bit of a shock.” (57:05–58:11)
  • On seeing his name everywhere: “A little odd because I would change it... I don’t know that it would be any better, but it would be different.” (59:56–60:39)

• Store Redesign Misstep:

  • On the Madison Avenue flagship redesign: “That turned out to be a mistake. Mistakes happen... but it has to be better.” (61:15–61:34)

9. On Success, Advice, and American Fashion Today

• No New “Big Three” in NYC

  • There isn’t a new class of Calvin/Ralph/Donna: “Maybe that’s because it’s a different era.” (65:07–65:23)

• Legacy of Confidence and Drive

  • On what it takes to succeed now:
    • “You need to believe in yourself before anyone’s going to believe in you. Even if you have doubts, don’t show them. Be confident, act confident.” (65:33–66:10)
  • On replenishing ambition:
    • “If you have it, you have it... I was driven because I never thought we got to where I wanted to be anyway. I thought we still needed to work harder, do it better, and that’s drive.” (67:24–67:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “In the fashion business, things change so quickly that you don’t think of what you already did... What can we do next that we haven’t done? Or what can we do better?” — Calvin Klein (03:53)
• “My attitude was always, what can we do next that we haven’t done? Or what can we do better? And this is the advice that I give students... Take risk and take a chance and believe in yourself, have confidence, because you need all of that.” — Calvin Klein (04:41)
• “She said, ‘Mr. Klein, I will pay you such and such.’ Which was double the cost of what I was asking for. She says, ‘Just make the clothes look like this, and I want them exclusive.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’” — Calvin Klein on Bonwit Teller (21:29)
• “I always liked the idea... of having the name associated with products that are not expensive. I mean, that’s why I started doing jeans.” — Calvin Klein (35:19)
• “When she said, ‘You know, what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.’ People got crazy. It sold denim like mad, because that created... the image that we wanted...” — Calvin Klein (38:35–39:09)
• “It was a period of freedom, every kind of freedom, and it’s never really been the same again.” — Calvin Klein on Studio 54 (41:04)
• “I like to think I have an eye for beauty, and that could be female or male. I used to find people driving along Sunset Boulevard, and I would stop the car and introduce myself.” — Calvin Klein on models (46:18)
• “There is no perfection. But we strive for something that you can’t get anyway. And I think doing that creates sometimes an atmosphere of work that’s tough.” — Calvin Klein (55:00)
• “You need to believe in yourself before anyone’s going to believe in you... Even if you have doubts, don’t show them. Be confident, act confident.” — Calvin Klein (65:33)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:32 – Calvin discusses being at Veronica Leoni’s debut for Calvin Klein
• 04:41 – Advice for students about taking risks
• 06:56–07:44 – Fashion influences from family background
• 19:24–22:32 – The Bonwit Teller discovery story and holding his ground
• 23:56 – Describing the original Calvin Klein look as “architectural and bulletproof”
• 35:19–35:55 – Thinking behind logo T-shirt and jeans expansion
• 37:21–39:09 – Brooke Shields ad campaign and its impact
• 41:04 – Reflections on Studio 54 era
• 42:58–44:46 – Fragrance business and bold marketing decisions
• 48:00–48:31 – Bruce Weber’s “about skin” observation, Klein’s take
• 55:00–55:41 – Klein on striving for perfection, intensity of work environment
• 57:05–58:11 – Reflections on selling the company and identity post-sale
• 65:33–66:10 – Core advice for new designers: “believe in yourself”

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Tone & Language

The mood was both nostalgic and analytical, blending personal anecdotes with Klein’s direct, sometimes wry, straightforward delivery. Nicole Phelps engaged with warmth, respect, and the curiosity of a true industry insider. The conversation maintained a spirit of honesty and constructive critique, both pragmatic and occasionally reflective about the unpredictability of fashion, business, and legacy.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a rare, comprehensive portrait of Calvin Klein—his design ethos, business acumen, and cultural impact. His reflections on American fashion’s evolution, legendary advertising, and the psychological realities behind enduring careers offer timeless, practical advice for the new generation of designers, industry veterans, and fashion enthusiasts alike.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi, I'm Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue's beauty editor at large. Ebay is one of the places where it ends up factoring so much into my fashion month because it lets me find pieces that I know aren't just pushed on me because it's a trend that's happening at the moment. There's an element of discovery with ebay where I'll find something new that excites me.

[B]

This is the run through and I'm Nicole Phelps. Today we have a very special guest. I had the rare opportunity to sit down for a long form conversation with the one and only Mr. Calvin Klein. A designer who dressed America and the world in his designer jeans and logo underwear. A designer who broke all the rules of luxury advertising and in the process became a household name. Whether it was Brooke Shields asking, you know, what comes between me and my Calvins, nothing or a topless Marky Mark and Kate Moss circling each other for lensman Steven Meisel. And a designer who streamlined slip dresses and sleek suits, Even after over 20 years of retirement, still define American minimalism, providing a template for young designers of today. Calvin Klein, who is now 82, came to the Conde Nast studios to talk about his early days in the Bronx, where he lived not far from a young Ralph Lauren, who he likes to point out, is indeed older than him. His design legacy, his quest for perfection, and the keys to his unparalleled success, two confidence and drive. I grew up on Calvin Klein ads. I wore Obsession and then I wore Eternity. He didn't just shape what I thought of as beautiful. His work propelled me into the world of magazines and fashion. So this is a truly thrilling interview for me. Welcome Calvin Klein. It is such a thrill to have you on the run through.

[C]

Thank you. It's really fun for me to do this kind of thing early in the morning, but exciting to be able to talk about my work, everything that I've done and how we did it and, you know, and so you go ahead and just ask me anything you feel.

[B]

Like I'm going to. I was at the show in February, the Calvin Klein show. It was Veronica Leone's debut and you were in the front row. And it was the first time that many of us had seen you since you retired. And I wanted to hear from you what it felt like to be back in 205 West 39th Street.

[C]

Well, not strange at all. It was interesting. I did go to a couple of shows years ago when I first stepped away, and. But I never sat in the front row. I always stood watching in the back? Yes. I mean, not in the back. I stood out front where the photographers would be. So it was a little odd sitting there and sitting next to Anna and Kelly and Kevin and everyone and exciting to see clothes that were in the feeling of what the brand stands for, but yet taken another step in a newer direction. So that was. I couldn't wait to see the next outfit come out. So I was totally into the show and into Veronica's work. She's very good, she's very talented and I'm sure it's going to do extremely well.

[B]

Well, we will see in September. She'll be back with the. With a second collection, which I always say is sometimes harder to do than the first, you know, to follow up.

[C]

I always thought each one was hard to do because you're always, you know, in the fashion business, things change so quickly that you don't think of what you already did, or at least I didn't. I always thought about what was next or what was right now. And that's what clothes are all about. It changes so quickly. I tended not to look back. My attitude was always, what can we do next that we haven't done? Or what can we do better? And this is the advice that I give students when I speak at schools, which I do quite, quite a bit. I try to encourage people to take risk and take a chance and believe in yourself, have confidence, because you need all of that. You need all of that to keep doing whatever it is you do.

[B]

I find fashion is always looking back, though. How do you balance that, the need to drive forward with fashion's sort of obsession with the past?

[C]

I was not. I was obsessed, but not with the past. I was obsessed with all kinds of things, but I did not look back. There were always influences, but mostly of one period, the 30s, that kind of lingerie dressing. But the collections weren't retrospective because we kept thinking of. I thought about the modern woman and what she needs. And the idea of reproducing clothes that reminded me of a particular decade just seemed really old fashioned and limiting in terms of who's going to wear the clothes. And I really always thought about the American woman thinking she's ahead of so many women around the world. Well, I was wrong because what we did here was successful all over the.

[A]

World.

[C]

Times had changed and there was a freedom that women experienced when, when I started working. And so I was very fortunate to be designing at a time and starting a business at a time when it opened up for American designers.

[B]

Let's go back a Little bit earlier to your American childhood, you grew up in the Bronx. Did you know from a very young age that you were interested in fashion and clothes?

[C]

Yes, I knew. I don't know how I knew, you know, but possibly because my mother was very interested in clothes. She spent all my dad's money on clothes. She was really good about that. My grandmother made clothes for people. She would do special things for people. She had a little shop. And I was very close to my grandmother. So I was around the idea of fashion, of sewing, of garment construction from a very early age. And as long as I can remember, I was always interested.

[B]

And you started sketching quite young, right?

[C]

I was an art student, yes, very young. I mean, and I went to a school that was very progressive public school in the neighborhood. And my parents encouraged me always to do whatever made me happy, made me feel good and pursue what I was interested in. They never got in the way.

[B]

Talk about the outside influences on you. I've heard or heard you say that James Dean was an icon. What were the movies you were watching? What were the magazines you were looking at that was sort of shaping your early vision of what was cool?

[C]

I was reading newspapers. I was reading newspapers more than I was looking at magazines. And there were iconic people, James Dean being one of them, in film. And at that time, in the 50s and 60s, we had a wonderful period in film and wonderful period for people like Rock Hudson, James Dean. I mean, there's so many of them and the way they dressed, but often the way they dressed in films. So costume designers had an influence. We were very close to what was happening in Hollywood, as was the world seemed to look to movie stars and Hollywood. And even though there wasn't there this Hollywood glamour that I would associate my work with, I would always think about New York.

[B]

So you were very self directed. You went to high school and then you went to FIT to study design, is that correct?

[C]

I did. I studied design in high school too. I went to a school that's in New York. It's called Art and Design. And that's where I began studying fashion. Actually. New York's a wonderful place to grow up. I know so many people who have come here, but being born here, you are immersed in a language and a culture that exists nowhere else. And even in schools. We started thinking about the future very early on.

[B]

What do they say about New York that once you live here, everywhere else is. It's a joke, it's not serious. Compared to New York?

[C]

No, I don't know about that, but I Always love coming back. And I've traveled a lot, mostly for work. But this city was a wonderful place to come back to. And for me, because, like, the work we did, it changed all the time. And I notice it now. There's building everywhere. It's constantly getting better as the city gets older.

[B]

So at fit, you took some time off. You worked at Women's Wear Daily.

[C]

I did.

[B]

You were a page boy, a copy boy. What does a copy boy do?

[C]

Page boy, I think, is in the theater. Copy boy delivers the mail. It's as simple as that. But you're surrounded by people in the business you want to be in, so it's just. You just soak it up. It was a wonderful experience. I mean, I worked with at a time when they were really exciting people. John Fairchild, who was the son of the man who started Fairchild Publications, which owned at that time, Women's Wear Daily. John was a real influence. He was. People wanted to know what he was interested in, what restaurants he went to for lunch, where he would go on vacation. Women's Wear Daily, while it's just a trade newspaper, had a lot of influence on very sophisticated people in this country.

[B]

It's where I got my start in fashion. I was Etta froio's assistant. And I remember my early days in fashion and feeling it was the most glamorous place in the world because the W magazine staff was right, you know, smashed up with us on that newsroom on 34th Street. And I remember very well we used to call you the big Three. You, Ralph and Donna.

[C]

Donna, yeah. That was a fun place to work. And I worked there when Etta was there, and she was there forever. And she was wonderful, Absolutely wonderful. Then I went back to school, took a really nice break, one of the few breaks ever, and back to school, and then started working on 7th Avenue. It was interesting because in my time, a lot of people that I went to school with wanted to work in Paris. That was the thing, to live in Paris, to work in Paris, which oddly enough, never interested me. I like going there. I love visiting. I have great admiration and always have for what French designers did and do today. But I was influenced by American women and. And it seemed to me this was the place to be.

[B]

I've heard you say that Claire McCardell, an American designer who was active after World War II, was an early inspiration on you.

[C]

Well, her work was sportswear, which was new because out of Europe there were dresses, coats. It was more grown up clothing. Sportswear was kind of an American thing. It was more relaxed, casual clothes for women who lived a certain way in design school. In Europe, you learn to design back then for women. Above the table, it was called, because women sat and had lunch or dinner, didn't do much else. And the design was noticed from above the table.

[B]

I think we call those going out tops now.

[C]

Well, in New York, there were women who lunched, but the women who really impressed me and influenced me were the ones who were busy working. Donna Karan made her whole career on that, the working woman thing. And I think American designers were influenced by American women and still are.

[B]

So let's talk about that early collection of yours. You have a day job on 7th Avenue, as you said. Maybe you didn't like it that much. You really had an itch to try something of your own. And you created this collection of samples of coats and dresses, I believe.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

And there is a story that Bonwit Teller's Mildred Custon was drawn to it by somebody else at that department store. And she sort of went crazy for it. She said, what impressed me most was the purity of his line and the simplicity of his design. So take us back to 1968. What was different about what you were doing than other things on 7th Avenue?

[C]

I not sure what was different. I could tell you later on, as I expanded into fragrance and other businesses, I would look at what the whole market was doing. But in the very beginning, I just had a desire to do my own thing. And the only way I could do it was befriending a pattern maker who, when I gave him the sketch, he would drape fabric and make a pattern from that. From that pattern, we made a sample. I had a sample tailor who lived in Brooklyn, and I worked with him one time, and I told him I was going to do this. Would he make my samples? He said yes. And every night he would go to his sewing machine and his daughter's bedroom, and he'd be sewing up the samples. I had a cutter who cut the sample for him to sew. And he lived in Queens, and I used to go from Queens to Long island to Manhattan, all over the place. And he lived in Queens, and he would cut the fabric on his kitchen table in Queens. Finally, I ended up with the samples, and I told two stories that I was going to do this while I was on a job, but it wasn't anything that I thought competed with the people I was working for at the time. But maybe it was not the most honest thing to do. So the two buyers promised that they would see the work and we would see what happens from there. And I took a little room, a showroom not much bigger than this little studio space in a Hotel on 7th Avenue. And to keep the clothes there and show to whoever wanted to see the clothes. The room was opposite the elevator.

[B]

Convenient.

[C]

And purely by accident, the elevator door opens. A man steps out and into my showroom and introduces himself. My name is Donald o', Brien, and I'm the general merchandise manager of Bonwit Teller. And I thought, well, what a nice surprise. I showed him my few samples. And this was on, I think, a Tuesday or Wednesday. He said, I will have the buyer come down and see the close on Thursday. He says, on Friday you will have been discovered by Mildred Custodyn, the president of Bonweteller. And that's exactly what happened. I was afraid of creasing the clothes. So I got a rack and I wheeled the rack up from 7th Avenue and 37th street to 5th Avenue and 56 or 7th Street. One of the wheels broke. I mean, everything that could happen, happened. And sure enough, I get to bar whisked up to her office and then and said, help me. Every word of this is exactly the way it happened. On the phone they said, Ms. Custins on her way up. And so she said, hello. She sat behind her desk. I presented everything to her and I told her the prices. She said, never a smile. She said, Mr. Klein, I will pay you such and such. Which was double the cost of what I was asking for. She says, just make the clothes look like this, and I want them exclusive. I said, I can't do that.

[B]

Where did you get the nerve to say no?

[C]

It was the right thing? I gave my word. It didn't occur to me that it required nerve. It just seemed like this is the right thing to do. And I knew she would understand, and she did. She didn't like it, but she did. And then afterward, I said to Dawn o', Brien, I said, well, she wasn't exactly very friendly. He said, well, she didn't have her hair done yet. It's early. She was a great supporter. In those days, stores really supported and backed new designers. I think things shifted and the stores wanted the people who designed the clothes to pay for the advertising, to pay for the space they got in the store. In my time, they gave it to us. They were thrilled to be able to present something new or different. And they supported design. And then she gave me I don't know how many Sunday Times ads, which was a huge, big deal that first year. But we worked together so. Well, I've always believed that this is a woman's business. Women buy the clothes, they wear the clothes, and they understand how to run the business, whether it be the retail business or manufacturing, making clothes. And that day, Mildred Custin, as well as other presidents of Storrs women just did great.

[B]

And from the beginning, the aesthetic was already taking shape. There was a sense of streamlinedness. I read an article that quoted you, and you called them architectural and bulletproof. You said, I thought American women needed to be more streamlined. They moved faster. They were working, they were raising kids. It was a time when the rules were changing. And it sounds like the clothes that you were making responded to that.

[C]

The idea of bulletproof, the fabrics were. They were strong, they were stiff. It was a period when they were architectural. And they would stand up sometimes by themselves, especially some of the coats. And I always had a feeling for tailored clothes anyway because they were streamlined. And if you'd start decorating tailored clothes, something weird about that. And I'm with you.

[B]

I hate a superfluous sequin.

[C]

Yeah. But the idea of them being modern is the absence of decoration. It's the. If the design is good and the shape is good and the silhouette, it doesn't need a lot of extra stuff to make a person feel better. So I've just always believed in stripping it.

[B]

Well, as you're saying here, I read something recently that said that you weren't trying to please Vogue magazine. I was more interested in the client. But of course, Vogue recognized you right away. In fact, I think it was just a year later that you had your first. You know, it's 1969, when you had your first Vogue cover. Do you remember what that meant to you at the time?

[C]

Well, the editor at that time, not the editor in chief, that was Diana Vreeland, but my editor was the Baron Nicholas de Gainsbourg. He influenced Bill Blass a lot and me, and we became great friends. And I would always preview what I was doing for Rhett, Nikki. And then sometimes he would say, now tell me what's going on in your life. That's not right. He said, I don't like what I'm seeing. I mean, he would tell me, this is honest. Oh, totally. He would tell me. I mean, it was a total different time. And interesting how. I mean, Cy Newhouse was there all the time, but it was just a change in the way business was done that affected the fashion world as well as every other part of the business world. And Nikki was a great, wonderful influence on my work. My Life. We had a deal every time we went to a restaurant, and he introduced me to the best. We'd go to La Grenouille for lunch. And the deal was the first time we go, vogue pays. After that, I pay. But he had a great sense of humor. Everything was fun for him. But what a talented man.

[A]

Whenever I'm looking for things with ebay authenticity guarantee, it often ends up being sneakers. I'm not necessarily sneakerhead, but there are specific sneakers that I may have, like, fallen in love with and have been discontinued. And it's really nice to find them on ebay. And so it'll be just like a pair of platform Converse loafers. It will be a pair of vans, white slippers with, like, a very specific low toe. And so it's great with ebay to just be like, this is a real thing. It's in the size that you want, it's in the style that you want. Real.

[B]

We should talk about another man who was very influential in your career, and that's your partner, Barry Schwartz. Barry and you were friends from a really young age, and you decided to go into business together. You're in your 20s.

[C]

We always had a dream when we were children of having a pet store together. We were going to go into the pet business. Well, we touched it with furs, but that was about it. An unfortunate thing happened. Barry was in the military. He worked with his father, and his father was killed in his store.

[B]

He was a grocery store owner, right?

[C]

Yes. Both families were in the grocery business, food business. And so he came out of the military, and he just said to me, what do you want to do? I had just started maybe my first job, and I said, I'm doing what I want to do. The only difference is I want to start my own company. And he said, well, I have some money. And we started making those samples, and he started paying for them. So the business partnership began right from day one with the company that we owned till not long ago, actually. He never thought he'd really be in it. He thought he would invest in it. But then he came to spend time after his father no longer had the business. He spent time with me, and he grew into it, and we had this friendship and partnership forever.

[B]

It's so interesting that both you and Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan are all New Yorkers by birth and by childhood. In fact, you and Ralph Lauren lived pretty close to each other in the Bronx.

[C]

I remember seeing him when I was in school because he was a bit older than me, and he always Dressed funny. I mean, he dressed the part that he played all these years and still does. Yeah, I was dressing like James Dean.

[B]

What is it about the crucible of New York that turns you all into these hugely influential American designers, but also global designers? What was in the water?

[C]

You know, you should ask my daughter that. She's the one who said, because there aren't too many young Donna Ralph or Calvins coming up. And it's something about New York. It's something about being competitive. It's something about being Jewish, all of those aspects. But. And talent. But you have to. You have to have confidence.

[B]

Well, your trajectories really do align with what you were talking about before the emergence of sportswear. And I think that for young people today who live in leggings and jog bras, they don't really understand how big a deal sportswear was. This idea that. That you don't need to be corseted or buttoned up, that there was this new looseness that you really represented well as the 70s came along.

[C]

But, you know, you go back to Chanel. She understood how to let women be comfortable in what they were wearing. And, you know, it's interesting for me because after I stopped working in the business, I started making my clothes in London. But actually, I was making clothes in London for myself earlier in the 70s, and today I'm making clothes for myself in Naples. Naples. This jacket is from Naples, Italy. Italy, yes. It's so soft and so comfortable. The English jacket is bulletproof. It's like wearing iron. It's stiff, it doesn't move. You know, it's uncomfortable to wear, but it looks kind of great. So given the choice, men still dress comfortably, but they dress up, too. Women, I think, when they had the choice, they wanted to be comfortable. Whether it was day, night, whatever, sportswear, tailored clothes, it all. It has to feel good.

[B]

I was digging through the Vogue archive and found this quote. It said, if you were around 100 years from now and wanted. This is from 1975, by the way. If you were around 100 years from now and wanted a definitive picture of the American look in 1975, you'd study Calvin Klein. So it's not 100 years later, but it's 50 years later. And it's true. Calvin Klein in American fashion, hand in hand.

[C]

Well, it's interesting because I don't know if that was from. We had six or seven models in one series, which was kind of great. And we were getting a lot of publicity at that time, but I rarely do what we're doing right now. I don't sit and talk about how I did whatever we managed to do. I just do it. And so hearing quotes back 50 years ago is, like, wild. I mean, it's kind of incredible. But when I look back, as much as things change, a lot doesn't change. And I get that from people who are still in the fashion business who will tell me they just came back from Paris or Milan, and this you used to do and that you used to do. And there is a certain amount of. They've become almost classics, you know, and that's great.

[B]

Well, here's a classic. The Calvin Klein logo, T. But somebody had to come up with it. And I was reading Jeffrey Banks, who worked for you, told a story that it was the early 70s and there was a show and they put your name, your logo on T shirts, and the women who were sort of seating people at the fashion show wore them. Is that how you remember the first Calvin Klein T shirt?

[C]

No, it isn't.

[B]

No.

[C]

But I love hearing Jeffrey would know. And it sounds very plausible that we would have done something like that. But I've forgotten how that happened.

[B]

I mean, we take it for granted now, the idea that brands put logos on T shirts, but somebody did it first.

[C]

Well, I always liked the idea that. That of having the name associated with products that are not expensive. I mean, that's why I started doing jeans, because I loved them. I used to live in them myself. And I liked the idea that they were not that expensive. And so we could say something to that woman. Well, it turns out every woman was interested in denim and T shirts.

[B]

And it's the mid-70s, 1976, and the jeans came around at the right moment. It was the dawn of the disco era. Everybody was wearing a little polo shirt and a tight pair of Calvin Klein jeans.

[C]

I think there's a certain amount of luck involved because the timing, although you get when you're in the fashion world, you're very aware of the timing of what's in the air, of what's trending. So it's not such a great surprise. But then often it takes just one designer in fashion to start something, and then everyone. That happened with underwear, too.

[B]

Before we get to underwear, which I definitely want to talk about, let's talk about the jeans advertising, because that shaped people's perceptions of the actual garments, but also the brand. You have said that the only way to sell is by not focusing on the product.

[C]

That wouldn't be the only way to sell. It's one way to sell, you don't have to focus on the garment itself. But we knew exactly what we were doing with Brooke.

[B]

This is Brooke Shields in the famous Calvin Klein jeans ads.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, that started. It always started with the writing. And that's where Dun Arbus came in, and Dick Avedon being the director, and Dick and Dune and I would sit and we would discuss who should be the voice, what the look should be, the clothes that work with the denim. I mean, every detail was mapped out, and we knew everything we were doing. What we didn't know was what the reaction would be to what we were doing, because we just thought, it's fun, this is cool, it's fun, it's young. And it turned out to create quite a commotion back in those days.

[B]

Well, it worked on me. I've told this story on the podcast before, but I was so obsessed with Brooke Shields that I wrote her a fan letter and I got a stamped postcard in return. So those advertisements are definitely seared. Seared in my brain.

[C]

Yeah. And the writing had so much to do with it. You know, when she said, you know, what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing. People got crazy. They just really got crazy. And it sold denim like mad, because that created, you know, the image that we wanted for the denim at that time, a little bad. Your parents wouldn't like it. And when the imaging is right and the design is right, you deliver on time. There's so many different reasons for success, real success. Everything has to be right because you really can't get away with much. And Brooke, I run into her all the time. She says she's still remembered more for those commercials than anything else she's done, which to me is a riot. But that marketing, that part was always fun. I always thought I could do that. I mean, I knew that why go to Madison Avenue to some stranger? Which I did occasionally. But then I would find everything wrong with what they showed me.

[B]

You basically built an ad agency I had in your own company?

[C]

Oh, for sure. CRK was my own ad agent, and we placed the ads. I used to watch TV. TV. Just to decide where to advertise the 11 o' clock news. I mean, I was obsessed with that. And I did. Chose all the space on air and in print for fragrance, for denim, for underwear.

[B]

Before we get to fragrance and underwear, you and Brooke Shields were often seen at Studio 54 together. Can you paint a picture of those times? It's another. Another aspect of the past that sort of, you know, is iconic to those of us. And Legendary to those of us who never. Who never described it. What made Studio 54 so much fun?

[C]

I think there are certain cities in the world at certain times. Berlin maybe in the 1920s, Paris in the 30s. That became the place to be New York in the 70s. I mean, you couldn't beat being here. I used to be at Studio 54 a lot, and they were my buddies, Steve and Ian. People would come off the plane and go to Studio 54 and not check into the hotel. I mean, crazy stuff. It was a period of freedom, every kind of freedom, and it's never really been the same again.

[A]

Dressing for fashion shows requires a little spontaneity, and you have to plan for the events of your day, but also be open to what's around you, and a lot of that'll be influenced by the street style that you're seeing. Just like in the moment, sometimes everybody's wearing low bun scrunchies. Obviously, we know that for a while, they were wearing trench coats. So whenever I'm using the search bar on ebay, I'm really thinking about, like, a theme or, like, an aesthetic that's interesting to me at that moment. And so sometimes it really is just like, sheer, sparkle, mesh. Ebay will end up directing me in places that I could have never anticipated. And so much of what I'm wearing for fall shows is from ebay.

[B]

Let's talk about the magic of fragrance making you. You had many hits. I remember wearing Obsession obsessively myself. Why is it important for a designer to get into the fragrance business? And what did you want to do that that nobody else was doing at that time?

[C]

I don't know what anyone else did. I mean, I know the fragrances that were out there at that time, what the bottle looked like, what the packaging looked like, and what the scent was. But you wanted to be in the fragrance world because in those days, a woman bought a fragrance and she attached her identity to the fragrance, so she wore that same fragrance. It would sell over and over for decades. That stopped. And we and other American designers maybe stopped it, because we would come out with new fragrances all the time, giving women a choice and saying, no, you don't have to identify just with one. There are many. And these are all ways of increasing volume, of increasing the fragrance business. And it worked. I mean, it worked whatever we did. And we created some controversy that was a part of it. I would do things that other people. I remember coming up with ideas for advertising, and I would tell the photographer, and one of them said, you would really do that, would you? And, you know, yeah, I took chances.

[B]

So I think what you might be talking about, the obsession ads in print, there were nude bodies, and you couldn't really tell whose arm, you know, multiple people's bodies. And there was a certain ambiguity to what was going on.

[C]

Well, there was that, but that's not what I was talking about.

[B]

Oh, what were you talking about?

[C]

I was thinking of denim. We were advertising denim, and I was presented with a campaign idea that I had done 10 years earlier. And I thought, we're not going to do that. And I just remember looking around the room and I said, what about that? And that's where the photographer said, would you really do that? And I said, well, I think so. And it was provocative imaging for denim. But denim can be provocative.

[B]

Is this the ck?

[C]

I'm not going to go any good then.

[B]

Okay, I won't press you. Your advertisements turned certain models into household names. Of course, there was Christy Turlington with the Eternity fragrance, and later Kate Moss with CK and CK1. Talk about your eye for models.

[C]

I like to think I have an eye for beauty, and that could be female or male. I used to find people driving along Sunset Boulevard, and I would stop the car and introduce myself, and I could just spot them. Anna used to. Anna Winter would call me, and she said, have you seen anyone new lately that we should know about? Yeah, I could tell that was easy. I get an emotional reaction, and that's editing film, you know, it was easy to edit Dick Avedon because Dick would present you with two or three images, and they'd say, that's it. Bruce Weber would be hundreds of images, and we'd stay up all night editing. And every image looked like every other one, too. So it was quite a job editing. But I would edit, and I could feel it. It's purely emotional.

[B]

You were reunited with Kristi and Kate at the show.

[C]

So sweet. Yes. Yeah. That was lovely and great that they were able to get them to come.

[B]

Bruce Weber said. He was talking about your work, and he said Calvin's pictures were always about skin. Do you agree?

[C]

Well, I never thought about it like that, but I think there was. I wanted to have a certain sensuality to the. Whether they were wearing warm weather clothing or nothing, or resort bikini, they should be sensual photographs. And skin is a part of that.

[B]

That was part of the reason why the underwear and the underwear campaigns became such a phenomenon. Right. Like, at the time, underwear wasn't necessarily sold with sensual ads. That was one of your innovations. There was something Sort of clinical about it, or, you know, the bra is there to hold your breasts up. It's not there to seduce.

[C]

I don't know. It was different for women and different for men. The advertising for men's underwear was more sensual than men's underwear had been before, certainly. And for women, I think it was breakthrough. Someone sent me a photograph of Women's Wear Daily of I'm with five young models, and I was introducing to Women's Wear Daily the underwear. The first thing we did, and it's a great photo. It was. No one did anything like that. I don't know why I was influenced. I was working with Kelly at the time, whom I married, and we would talk about underwear. We did the underwear together. And the women's underwear with the elastic band came from men's underwear. So there was a tremendous overlap between what we were doing for both sexes.

[B]

Going back to vogue again. The underwear was such a phenomenon that there was. There was an article that was written in Vogue, and Richard Martin, who was the curator of the Costume Institute, was interviewed for this piece. And he said, what CK has done for the underwear industry is promote the erotic aspect. He has achieved a perfect melding of the design objective of the Bauhaus and the marketing objective of sensuality. So, I mean, it tells incredible story that, you know, there were articles about the underwear, pages and page long articles.

[C]

I never saw that, but it's nice to see you.

[B]

I'm gonna pull it for you.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

And show it to you. So it's 1993, and you put on a Runway show for CK. It was the first Runway show, I think, for CK and the idea was to cast real people, which was sort of unheard of at the time. Now people, now designers are doing that and calling it a novelty. But you did it in 1993.

[C]

Well, you know, the other thing that regarding models, I used a lot of print models, models that had never done a Runway show. And I would say to them, I don't care how you walk. Walk the way you walk. Don't try and do it like a Runway show. Just walk like you're walking down the street. Because it was the image, it was the look of what we would see when she was walking, not how she turned her body and did a half U turn or something on the Runway. That mattered. And so the girls were no longer frightened by the idea of walking down a Runway with hundreds of people in the showroom. And that started something too, because then models were doing fashion shows, but before that, they hadn't done them. It was Runway models, they were called. And that was a little theatrical performance that the Runway model gave that. I thought, it's not me.

[B]

No. And so that goes back to this American minimalism that you stood for. It was sort of fresh and sort of. The excesses. Getting rid of the excesses.

[C]

Yes, in a certain way. Why do you need to turn in the middle of your walk? I mean, what were people thinking? What's the reason behind that? So, yeah, we just got rid of the unnecessary.

[B]

And simultaneous to launching CK, which became a huge, huge brand in the 90s, you also had a designer brand, a high fashion brand. And Vogue says at the time that it whispered style instead of screaming fashion, and that your neutral palette earned you the name Mr. Clean.

[C]

Vogue has a good way of crystallizing all of these thoughts.

[B]

But now, you know, it's 30ish years later, and those 90s shows of yours have become such, like, they're such landmark collections. We see designers looking at them and riffing off of them and lifting from them. Do you notice that at all?

[C]

No, no, no, I don't. And I don't stay. It's funny because Kelly and I talk about this. When you're not doing it day to day fashion, it becomes a little less important.

[B]

It's hard for us fashion people to believe that.

[C]

Well, because it used to be life or death. I mean, working with my team was pretty intense. I was not easy to be around, and we were very competitive. So you think there's nothing else in the world, but then when you're suddenly not doing it on a daily basis, you realize there is a world out there and there are lots of other things going on, and that's life.

[B]

Paint a picture of that. Not easy to work with. There were really long hours in the lead up to a fashion show. Is that right?

[C]

Yes. But that everyone had. I'm sure that every design team had to deal with that. And it's not how long the hours are, it's how intense they can be about being perfect. And there is nothing. There is no perfection. But we strive for something that you can't get anyway. And I think doing that creates sometimes an atmosphere of work that's tough. It was tough.

[B]

You like your eye for picking out models. You really. The 205 West 39th was like a finishing school for people in fashion. So many people who continue to work in the industry, really, if they didn't get their start there, they at least put in their time there.

[C]

No, I know. I mean, I'm well Aware and always so surprised when. Because I meet people all the time in restaurants who say I've worked in the company or I am still working in the company and, you know, or in different parts of the world, you know, when you're doing it on a daily basis and you always seem to be late. Whatever we're doing, we're late at. And you're not really thinking about the influence that you might have on other people's lives.

[B]

Right. And there's sort of a uniform, right, The Calvin Klein uniform. When people worked there, they adopted it.

[C]

What to do with the makeup, the hair, everything.

[B]

And no staples, I heard. No staples at the office, only paper clips mostly. So I want to talk about. It's the early 2000s, and you decided to sell the company during different periods.

[C]

Even in the 80s, I was thinking about that because I didn't have anyone in. In my family that was interested in the business. There are opportunities that come along where you think you can grow the business if you become part of something else. And so for those reasons, I thought about becoming part of a public company or selling. I never really thought that it would be very difficult for me to be working with a new team. I mean, I just thought we could do that. But I was used to running the show and suddenly offering an opinion and not everyone running. To do it, to make it happen was a bit of a shock. So I did it for a couple of years, and then I couldn't do it anymore.

[B]

I mean, by fashion standards today, where you have a lot of people in their 80s working, you left your brand at a. At a pretty young age. And I wonder, you know, do you have regrets about that at all?

[C]

No. No. I miss the teamwork. I miss the times when, as a group, we were creating that, you know, But I look at it as. I had a good run. I mean, who am I to complain about anything? It was all good. And. And then I had freedom that I'd never experienced before, because my traveling, wherever I was, I was always in a factory. We were working all the time or rushing back to New York because we didn't have enough time to stay away. Now I could spend as much time anywhere I want and do whatever I want, you know, and be of help to people who might need some.

[B]

Your name is as recognizable as Coca Cola or as Vogues. It is. Very few people understand what it's like to have that kind of a name. And I Wonder, these last 20 years, as you've seen your name appear, you know, on billboard after billboard, it's always changing down there on Houston and Broadway. What does it feel like to continue to see your name but not be involved with the company?

[C]

A little odd because I would change it. I'd make it different for sure. I don't know that it would be any better, but it would be different. Occasionally I see something and I would think, okay, that works for me. But more often, that was always my job was to say, no, this isn't good enough. No, it should look more like that, or we should go back to something else. So that's what I did. And I could still do that even if I'm not doing it on a daily basis. On a daily basis. I live near Sunset Boulevard and. And in New York, I put those billboards up and was able to reach people that didn't turn a page in Vogue, and that's what the idea was. So, no, I would do it differently, but I don't want to do it now. While I might miss some of the good, overall, I have no regrets.

[B]

It was strange to see the Madison Avenue store change so dramatically.

[C]

That turned out to be a mistake. Mistakes happen. Things, you know, decisions are made that you take a chance, and sometimes it doesn't work. That didn't work.

[B]

I have to say, I agree with you on that one.

[C]

It didn't work. The idea of changing the interior is not a bad one, but it has to be better, not just some crazy thing, just to be different.

[B]

Who are your inheritors? Would you say you defined American sportswear in the second half of the 20th century? You, as I said before, are known as Mr. Clean. You invented American minimalism. Who do you think holds that mantle today?

[C]

I don't know. You should ask Donna Karan. She's better at that kind of thing than I am. I don't know. I mean, I'm not close enough to it to. And it's kind of an editor's point of view rather than designers. I didn't pay that much attention to what everyone was doing when I was doing it. When I was doing the work, I would focus more on what we did. And I think that's part of the reason we were successful. We ran our own horse race. We weren't looking, you know, the next horse coming up.

[B]

Certainly some of the people who worked for you over the years. Narciso Rodriguez has very talented. Yes. He also practices a certain kind of minimalism. Phoebe Filo, when she relaunched Celine, there was an American minimalism to it, I would say right now. I mean, we've certainly just come through this moment where we use that quiet luxury word, you know, a thousand times too often. But post pandemic period of simplicity. And I don't know if it will continue or we'll get the vibe shift everyone seems to think is coming without.

[C]

I don't have a crystal ball. I don't. I could see for the brand what we needed to do for the most part to move on, but no one knows what's going to happen.

[B]

So looking back, what are your proudest moments?

[C]

I don't know. I mean, I think just overall, in terms of the fashion world, whatever we were able to do and that still goes on, you know, they're still making fragrance, we're still doing things. And I'm proud that we were able to start something that has a life after I've left it on a day to day basis. But I don't have, like, having children. I don't have different, you know, likes or dislikes. I mean, for me, it was all about the challenge and that we were able to do something that other designers, or certainly lots of them hadn't done. So I was excited by the challenge and excited to this day, proud that it still goes on.

[B]

It is a challenging time for independent designers in New York. As you said, there isn't a new class of Calvin Ralphs and Donnas that seem to be emerging. And maybe that's because it's a different era. But, you know, what can today's designers who are emerging now and on the rise, what can they learn from you? What advice would you give them?

[C]

Well, the kind of thing I've been saying since we started this podcast, you need to believe in yourself before anyone's going to believe in you. And even if you have doubts, don't show them. Be confident, act confident. That's a way you can get people to be on your side and to believe in what you're doing. It has to come from you. That's the best advice I can give anyone.

[B]

Where did your confidence come from, do you think?

[C]

I don't know. I mean, I always had people that were supportive around me. People encouraged me, whether that was teachers at this school or that school or positions that I held once I finished school, my family, everyone was supportive. I never had doubters, and that doesn't mean I didn't doubt. I doubted myself, but I didn't let people know. But I did basically continue to believe in what we were doing. But you go through difficult times. You know, the fashion business or any business is part of the economy. If things are not great in the world. Things are not gonna be great in your business, but you have to keep pushing on, work through it.

[B]

And the flip side of that question, to succeed like you did took a lot of drive and a lot of ambition. How did you keep replenishing that? Where did that come out?

[C]

You don't lose that. If you have it, you have it, you know? And the other thing is, I was driven because I never thought we got to where I wanted to be anyway. I thought we still needed to work harder, do it better, and that's drive.

[B]

Thank you very much for coming and.

[C]

Doing this with us. Thank you.

[B]

The Run through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma and Stephanie Kariuki. It's engineered by Pran Bandy and James Yost. It is mixed by Mike Kutchman. Chris Bannon is Conde Nast head of Global Office Audio.

[A]

Right now, I'm wearing this, like, perfect, kind of like, almost periwinkle purple metallic leather jacket that one of my best friends got me for my birthday just a couple weeks ago, and she got it on ebay. And the first day I wore it was to the Vogue offices. And as I was walking in the door, one of my cool friends stopped me outside and was like, this jacket is so cool. The color is so radiant. Was it made for you? And I was just like, my friend got it on E. And it is perfect. I'm wearing it once a week, if not more. But it's the kind of thing that I plan also to be wearing for fall shows. Like, that's a completely appropriate thing to wear as an editor who's going backstage to be interviewing people sort of like behind the scenes. But maybe you end up finding yourself, like, with a seat at the show.

[B]

La la.

[A]

Or maybe you have to go straight from there to a dinner that's, like, very fancy. Everything kind of needs to take you everywhere. And my ebay style is, like, it can go everywhere from prx.