Phillips-Van
Heusen Corporation
Phillips-Van Heusen
Corporation is an apparel company, and the world's largest shirt
company. It owns brands such as Calvin Klein, Van Heusen, Izod,
Arrow, Bass and licenses brands such as Geoffrey Beene, BCBG Max
Azria, Chaps, Sean John, Kenneth Cole New York, JOE Joseph Abboud
and MICHAEL Michael Kors.
The history of Phillips-Van
Heusen can be traced back to 1876, when G. H. Bass began his shoe
manufacturing company in Maine. Separately, John M. Van Heusen
and Isaac Phillips met and formed the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation,
and Vin Draddy acquired the rights to the Izod name in the early
1900s.
In 1881, Moses Phillips
and his wife Endel began sewing shirts by hand and selling them
from pushcarts to local Pottsville, Pennsylvania anthracite coal
miners. This grows into a shirt business in New York City that
places one of the first ever shirt ads in the Saturday Evening
Post.
The Phillips-Van Heusen
Corporation received a patent for a self-folding collar in 1919,
which was released to the public in 1921 and was successful. The
first collar attached shirt was introduced in 1929.
The Bass Weejun was
introduced in 1936. Geoffrey Beene shirts were launched in 1982.
In 1987, Phillips-Van
Heusen acquired G.H. Bass. In 1995, the corporation acquired the
Izod brand, followed by the Arrow brand in 2000, and the Calvin
Klein company in 2002.
After acquiring Superba,
Inc. in January 2007, PVH now owns necktie licenses for brands
such as Arrow, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Perry Ellis, Ted
Baker, Michael Kors, JOE Joseph Abboud, Original Penguin and Jones
New York.
The corporation
will begin making men's apparel under the Timberland name in 2008,
with women's apparel to follow in 2009, under a licensing agreement.
Source: Wikipedia®