Beginning with a campaign featuring Hollywood actress/model, Brooke Shields in 1978, Calvin Klein's advertisements had become synonymous with sex and eroticism. Over the decades, the label continually played along the fashion/obscenity line to cash in on the fact that the controversies and the brand's 'rebel' image successfully lured the customers.

Analysts said that Calvin Klein had come to be known as a company that liked to generate sales through scandals and featured nudity on a regular basis in its advertisements. However, most of them seemed to agree that this time around, the company had gone too far.

The young Klein was introduced to the world of garments and tailoring by his maternal grandmother, who was a seamstress with her own tailoring business. The fact that Flore Stern was a fashion-conscious shopper too helped Klein while he taught himself the art of sketching and sewing clothes.

He joined the High School of Industrial Art to major in fashion illustration. Thereafter, he joined the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and simultaneously studied the latest trends in the US fashion designing business. He was particularly inspired by designer Claire McCardell, from whom he picked up the basic ideas for his unique, minimalist designing style.