Sterling Silver Four-Piece Coffee Set by Calvin Klein for Swid Powell

Known for his minimalist, comfortable womenswear as well as a range of sexually provocative ad campaigns that continue to generate conversation decades later, Calvin Klein initially experienced the garment industry as a child in his grandmother’s New York City tailoring business. He would one day establish a global fashion brand — the Bronx native led the designer jeans craze of the late 1970s, and vintage Calvin Klein skirts, jackets, day dresses and shirts, frequently created in soft fabrics and understated neutral hues, are still versatile components of everyday wear.

Klein was born in 1942. He joined his mother on trips to designer discount store Loehmann’s and visited his grandmother's seamstress shop, where he was able to witness the particulars of clothing design in his youth. As a teen, Klein started making fashion sketches and attended the High School of Art and Design and the Art Students League of New York. He graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1963.

Klein worked with coat manufacturer Dan Millstein after his studies had concluded. In 1968, he partnered with his childhood friend, Barry Schwartz, and opened a small coat and dress shop in the York Hotel in Manhattan. Schwartz ran the business side of things while Klein took the reins on creative direction. The designer’s work was soon stocked at Bonwit Teller — and appeared in large ads in the New York Times — and in 1969, a model sported a Calvin Klein coat on the cover of Vogue.

During the 1970s, Klein added sportswear, lingerie, blazers and a range of stylish accessories to his lines of apparel. He became the youngest-ever recipient of the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award in 1973, winning again in both of the subsequent two years. 

Klein’s debut of his now-revered blue jeans in 1976 was somewhat of a failure — they were too expensive, and buyers complained about the fit. Late one night at Studio 54, the designer heard about the benefits that a licensing deal with apparel manufacturer Puritan Fashions might bring him. Two years later, Klein inked that deal and sold 200,000 pairs of his jeans, which were produced by Puritan, in a week.

A large percentage of Puritan’s sales in 1978 owed to Klein’s blue jeans. This streak with denim carried on into the 1980s, when Klein would be competing with the likes of Jordache, Gloria Vanderbilt and other labels. Klein’s jeans were promoted in scandalous ads featuring Brooke Shields and others that were banned by television stations and challenged by politicians. The decade saw the debut of successful men's and women's underwear collections designed by Klein that were also the subjects of steamy marketing campaigns. Soon, Calvin Klein expanded to 12,000 American stores and retail locations in six other countries.

Though profits declined in the early 1990s, Klein saved the business with successful underwear, sportswear and fragrance lines. More controversial ad campaigns with up-and-coming models and celebrities like Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg followed, also bringing fresh attention to the brand. In 2002, the Calvin Klein company was sold to Phillips Van Heusen Corp. Belgian designer Raf Simons was named chief creative officer at the brand in 2016.

On 1stDibs, find vintage Calvin Klein clothing, accessories and handbags.

The New York City–based tableware company Swid Powell produced some of the most distinctive china and silver of the 1980s in collaboration with international architects and designers. It enjoyed renewed attention in 2007, when the Yale University Art Gallery mounted the exhibition “The Architect’s Table: Swid Powell and Postmodern Design,” celebrating the donation to its collection of the company’s papers.

Swid Powell was established in 1982 by Nan Swid and Addie Powell, who met while working at the modernist furniture company Knoll. Their idea was to translate the aesthetics of postmodern design from the skyscraper to the dining table, and they brought into their preliminary discussions nine prominent architects. Among these were Philip Johnson, Stanley Tigerman and Richard Meier, all of whom expressed enthusiasm about making their designs accessible beyond the small group with the funds to commission buildings from them.

The first Swid Powell collection was launched in 1984, accompanied by a bold, graphic print campaign in keeping with the era’s advertising trends. The company’s best-known collaboration was with Robert Venturi’s Philadelphia-based firm, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, whose patterns — particularly the floral design Grandmother inspired by a tablecloth Venturi saw at the home of a colleague's grandmother — adorned Swid Powell porcelain as well as furniture and clothing.

The firm also partnered with architect Richard Meier, whose geometric designs were inspired in part by those of Josef Hoffmann and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Swid Powell also worked with Arata Isosaki, Ettore Sottsass, Zaha Hadid and George Sowden, creating products that incorporated the bright, saturated colors and popular and historical references, like Classical columns, that animated postmodern design in the 1980s. The Chicago Blue china pattern designed for Swid Powell by the firm Gwathmey Siegel references the distinctive patterns of Frank Lloyd Wright’s leaded glass windows. As you will see in the examples below, Swid Powell continued to produce fine, fashionable homewares throughout the decade and beyond.