Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein was founded in 1968 in New York by designer Calvin Klein and his childhood friend Barry Schwartz, who started the label as a coat business, Calvin Klein Ltd., operating out of a rented room in the York Hotel with an initial $10,000 in capital. Klein's early womenswear built a reputation for minimalist tailoring and clean lines, appearing on the cover of American Vogue within a year of the company's founding and winning the Coty Award for the full women's sportswear line by 1973. The brand became a mass-market phenomenon with the 1978 launch of Calvin Klein Jeans, which reportedly sold 200,000 pairs in its first week, and again in the 1980s when Calvin Klein turned men's underwear -- including the boxer brief -- into a visible, branded fashion category rather than a purely functional garment. Today Calvin Klein operates globally as a multi-category fashion house spanning ready-to-wear, denim, underwear, fragrance and accessories, sold through its own flagship boutiques, department-store concessions and e-commerce. In Florence, Calvin Klein products are available through outlets including a Calvin Klein store on Via Calimala and via multi-brand retailers such as La Rinascente; no independently verifiable source confirms a Calvin Klein boutique specifically on Piazza della Signoria.