Item 2017.337.2 - Calvin Klein Light grey heather crisp stretch wool studded overcoat

1968–present
Calvin Klein Collection 1973–2017 Calvin Klein 205W39NYC 2017–19
Calvin Klein Inc. was co-founded by Cavin Klein (b. 1942) and Barry Schwartz (b. 1942) in 1968. Initially producing womenswear, the company introduced menswear for Autumn Winter 1978 through an initial five-year licensing deal with Maurice Bidermann. In 1986 Klein bought the licence back from Bidermann Industries USA, planning to relaunch the menswear with an in-house design team later that year. However, it was not until Autumn Winter 1992 that Calvin Klein re-entered the menswear market after signing a manufacturing and marketing deal with GFT USA Corp. John Varvatos (b. 1954) served as head of menswear between 1990 and 1993, followed by Stephen Fairchild (b. 1962) as design director for menswear until 1996.
In 2003 Calvin Klein Inc. was sold to Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. (PVH) for US$400 million, plus US$30 million in stock and up to US$300 million in royalties tied to revenues over the next fifteen years. In 2003 Italo Zucchelli (b. 1965) was named as the creative director for the men’s Calvin Klein Collection, where he remained until 2016. Belgian designer Raf Simons (b. 1968) was announced in August 2016 as the new Chief Creative Officer of the brand, responsible for all aspects of design, marketing and communications, across all product lines for men and women. Under Simons, the Calvin Klein Collection was renamed Calvin Klein 205W39NYC and his first runway collection for the brand in February 2017 presented menswear and womenswear together. In December 2018, eight months before the end of his contract, it was announced that Simons would be leaving the company with immediate effect, as the company had decided on a different direction for the brand. In March 2019 Calvin Klein announced it was to discontinue the Calvin Klein Collection division of the brand.

Calvin Klein was named Menswear Designer of the Year in 1999 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and in 2009 the award went to Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein Collection. In 2017 both the awards for Womenswear and Menswear Designer of the Year went to Raf Simons for Calvin Klein.
Sources: British Vogue; Dow Jones Institutional News; Lisa Marsh, The House of Klein: Fashion, Controversy, and a Business Obsession (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003); New York Post; The New York Times; WWD.