American fashion designer Calvin Klein was BOTD in 1942. Born in the Bronx in New York City to Hungarian immigrant parents, he studied fashion in his teens, apprenticing with a men’s suit manufacturer. In 1968, he launched his first company with childhood friend Barry Schwartz, producing women’s suits, coats and sportswear. He became the protégé of fashion editor (and flaming queen) Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, who introduced him to elite New York society, becoming a fixture at Studio 54 nightclub. He achieved overnight success with his 1974 jeans collection, pioneering a tight-fitting cut with clean lines that drew comparisons with Yves Saint Laurent. He dominated fashion in the 1980s, popularising designer underwear and creating controversy with advertisements featuring a teenaged Brooke Shields explaining “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” His company faced financial difficulty in the 1990s, saved by a bailout from entertainment mogul David Geffen, but continued to dominate pop culture with a 1992 ad series featuring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Moss, and a controversial 1995 campaign evoking amateur pornography. Leaning into the fashionable androgyny of the period, he achieved stratospheric success with the unisex cologne CK One. In 2003, Klein and Schwartz sold their company for US$430 million, with Belgian designer Raf Simons succeeding him as creative director. Married and divorced twice, Klein had a number of relationships with men, notably the model and porn star Nicholas Gruber. He has been in a relationship with Kevin Baker, a model 45 years his junior, since 2016.