The history of a modern
world-class company
Fall 2008
PVH completes the licensing agreement with The Timberland Company to re-launch its men’s apparel.
Summer 2008
IZOD becomes the official apparel company of the IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
2004
PVH purchases the worldwide rights to Arrow.
2004
PVH Dress Shirt Group expands it license agreements to include MICHAEL Michael Kors, BCBG Max Azria, BCBG Attitude, Sean John and Donald H. Trump Signature.
2003
PVH acquires Calvin Klein, greatly expanding its international growth potential.
2000
PVH acquires license to manufacture designer dress shirts for Kenneth Cole.
2000
PVH acquires worldwide rights to the Van Heusen brand, previously owned separately in the States and Great Britain. The acquisition makes it the world’s top dress shirt brand.
1995
PVH acquires IZOD, one of America’s top names in knit shirts.
1991
Van Heusen becomes America’s top selling dress shirt brand.
1987
PVH acquires G.H. Bass & Co., today, one of America’s top selling shoe brands.
1984
Michael Jackson revives Bass Weejun’s popularity by wearing a black pair in his 1984 music video, "We Are the World".
1982
PVH launches Geoffrey Beene shirts, one of America’s top selling designer dress shirts.
1968
Bass acquires Burgess Shoe Stores, renaming them Bass Factory Outlets and establishing the company in the retail outlet sector.
1952
Legendary tennis player René Lacoste partners with the David Crystal company, owner of the IZOD brand, to market a new pique knit. The company’s popularity soars, as an increasing number of celebrities are spotted in these shirts.
1939
Van Heusen’s collar-attached shirts are advertised across the States. In the fifties, the company employs celebrities including Ronald Reagan, Charleton Heston and Mickey Rooney to promote them.
1936
Bass discovers a Norwegian shoe and obtains permission from its owners to interpret it with the company look: the Bass Weejun is born.
1922
The Phillips-Jones company arranges shirt production in England with J & J Ashton and Robert M. Moody. Seven years later, the first collar-attached Van Heusen dress shirt, the Collarite, is introduced.
1927
Charles Lindbergh wears Bass Aviation Boots on his historic transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. Three years later, Bobby Jones wears Bass Sportocasins when he wins golf’s Grand Slam.
1919
A patent is granted for the Van Heusen soft-folding collar. Two years later, this revolutionary new collar is introduced to the public to immediate and great success.
1881
Moses Phillips and his wife Endel begin hand sewing shirts and selling them to local Pottsville, PA coal miners. The small pushcart operation would turn into the first shirt company to advertise in the Saturday Evening Post.
1876
George Henry Bass begins his career as a shoemaker by purchasing a share of E.P. Packard and Co., a shoe manufacturer in Wilton, Maine. One years later, he becomes the sole owner and in 1880, changes the name to G.H. Bass and Co.
