At which hotel did Calvin Klein open his first store?

At which hotel did Calvin Klein open his first store? He opened it at the York Hotel.

The 1968 venture was initially a small coat shop and showroom rather than a modern street-front retail store. Klein and his childhood friend Barry K. Schwartz leased Room 613 of the York Hotel at 488 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan’s Garment District.

The hotel was a hub for traveling garment salesmen, with many rooms doubling as temporary showrooms during market weeks. Klein displayed a first collection of six coats and three dresses on a simple pipe rack and worked the phones to attract buyers.

A chance elevator stop brought Bonwit Teller executive Donald O’Brien into the showroom. The department store later placed a $50,000 order, giving the young label its first major commercial breakthrough. Bonwit Teller, therefore, was an important early retailer, but it was not the hotel where Klein began.