Fashion designer Anne Klein was born on August 3, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She enrolled in a fashion school at age 14 to study fashion design. She began working at age 15. She married Ben Klein in 1939, and together they founded the brand Junior Sophisticates in 1948. In 1955, she won the Coty Award, known as the "Academy Awards of the Fashion World." She divorced Ben in 1958. She remarried Matthew Rubenstein in 1963 and founded Anne Klein in 1968. Her versatile designs became popular, and she was inducted into the Coty Hall of Fame in 1971. She died of breast cancer in 1974 at the age of 50. Takihyo, a Japanese company, invested in Anne Klein in 1973, acquired the company through M&A the following year, and began selling the brand in Japan in 1975. In 1999, Takihyo sold the brand to the American Jones Apparel Group (now the Jones Group), but in 2002 obtained the Anne Klein license for the Japanese market.

After Anne's death, Donna Karan, Patrick Robinson, Isabel Toledo, and others took over as designers. However, sales were poor, and the collection line was discontinued after the 2007 resort collection. Currently, the company focuses on its second line, Anne Klein New York, and the affordable AK Anne Klein.

In February of this year, Takihyo's licensing agreement with Anne Klein New York expired, and the brand withdrew from Japan.