PVH Corp.

19th to early 20th century

The history of Phillips-Van Heusen goes back in part to Dramin Jones, a Prussian immigrant who founded the shirt manufacturing company D. Jones & Sons, c. 1865. Separately, in 1881, Moses Phillips and his wife Endel began sewing shirts by hand and selling them from pushcarts to local anthracite coal-miners in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. This grew into a shirt business in New York City that placed one of the first ever shirt advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post. D. Jones & Sons merged with M. Phillips & Sons in 1907 under the name Phillips-Jones after Dramin Jones's death in 1903. Later Isaac Phillips met John Van Heusen, resulting both in their most popular line of shirts (Van Heusen), and in the subsequent acquisition of Van Heusen by Phillips-Jones and its renaming to Phillips-Van Heusen in 1957.

PVH is partly named after Dutch immigrant John Manning van Heusen, who in 1910 invented a new process that fused cloth on a curve.

20th century

The Phillips-Jones Corporation received a patent for a self-folding collar in 1919; the corporation released the product to the public in 1921 and it became 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.

21st century

In 2004, PVH began manufacturing clothing for the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection as part of a licensing agreement with Donald Trump.

After acquiring Superba, Inc., in January 2007, PVH owned 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 began making men's clothing under the Timberland name in 2008, with women's clothing following in 2009, under a licensing agreement.

On March 15, 2010, Phillips-Van Heusen acquired Tommy Hilfiger for $3 billion. In the third quarter of 2010 losses made on the "Van Heusen" brand led to the decision to pull it out of all European trading markets. As of March 2011 the company sells no products under that name in Europe. All European staff became redundant as a result.

In 2011, Phillips-Van Heusen was renamed to PVH.

In February 2013, PVH acquired Warnaco Group, which manufactured the Calvin Klein underwear, jeans and sportswear lines under license, thus consolidating control of the Calvin Klein brand. The Warnaco acquisition also added the Warner's and Olga intimate apparel brands, as well as the Speedo swimwear brand (the latter in North America only). In November 2013 PVH sold the G.H. Bass brand and all of its assets, images and licenses to G-III Apparel Group.

In October 2007, PVH took over naming rights to the Meadowlands Sports Complex arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The arena's name was changed to the Izod Center, effective on October 31, 2007. PVH paid about $1.4 million a year for two years, then paid $750,000 a year in addition to $100,000 per year to supply arena employees with Izod uniforms. In 2015, the Izod Center was permanently closed.

Controversies

Sexist advertising

The "Show Her It's a Man's World" 1951 for Van Heusen ties has since been cited in academic literature regarding the history of advertising and media perpetuation of harmful, sexist gender stereotypes. The ad featured a man sitting comfortably in bed, wearing only a Van Heusen shirt and tie, while a woman is depicted on her knees beside the bed, smiling as she serves him breakfast on a tray, with headline declaring, "Show her it's a man's world," positioning the tie as a tool to establish a patriarchic hierarchy.

Environmental practices

In July 2011, PVH—along with other major fashion and sportswear brands including Nike, Adidas and Abercrombie & Fitch—was the subject of a report by the environmental group Greenpeace entitled "Dirty Laundry". PVH is accused of working with suppliers in China who, according to the findings of the report, contribute to the pollution of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers. Samples taken from one facility belonging to the Youngor Group located on the Yangtze River Delta and another belonging to the Well Dyeing Factory Ltd. located on a tributary of the Pearl River Delta revealed the presence of hazardous and persistent hormone disruptor chemicals, including alkylphenols, perfluorinated compounds, and perfluorooctane sulfonate.

In 2020, PVH announced for its sustainability policy for its Izod and Van Heusen brands to eliminate single use plastic from packaging by 2024, and use 100% sustainable cotton, polyester, and nylon by 2025.

Use of animals

Concerns have arisen about PVH's practices with regards to animal testing. In 2020, PVH announced that as part of their animal welfare policy, the company does not use exotic skins and would be banning their use in Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein collections when "our annual update of that policy is released."

Tax avoidance

In 2018 PVH along with 90 additional Fortune 500 companies had "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less" as a result of Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.