[2][3] Banks worked as a design assistant to Ralph Lauren (1971 to 1973) and Calvin Klein (1973 to 1976).
[2] He has claimed credit for Klein's logo garments, stating that he had the logo from a press folder silkscreened onto the sleeve of a brown T-shirt as a present for Klein.
[4] The gift was assumed by Barry K. Schwartz to be part of the upcoming line, and similar shirts formed the uniform for the front-of-house staff at Klein's next catwalk show, leading to the buyers asking to purchase them.
[4] After leaving Calvin Klein, Banks launched his own-name label in New York City in 1977, according to his official website,[5] although some sources state 1978.
[9] The second book led to Banks and de La Chapelle collaborating with Erica Lennard on Perry Ellis: An American Original, the first in-depth monograph on Banks's former friend and colleague, the designer Perry Ellis, published in 2013.