Ben Sherman Men's Fashion Brand

Embrace the new and different and reject the normal and mundane with Ben Sherman - that is the brand's own invitation, quoted at the head of this profile. Ben Sherman was a legend in his own right: a man described as 'always embracing the new and the different', someone constantly searching for the best of things, who disliked regularity and preferred to search out things that were perceived as unavailable to him - a passionate businessman with an artist's soul. Ben started making shirts for other people, but soon his creative flair took over and he started designing his own shirts; then in 1963 he was ready to launch the first Ben Sherman shirt.

Its basic design was influenced by the classic American Ivy League shirt, but Ben's design vision added the back hook, the button on the back of the collar, and most importantly his feel and passion for fabric, pattern and color, which created a unique garment. Ben Sherman is a British clothing brand selling shirts, sweaters, suits, outerwear, shoes and accessories predominantly for men. Ben Sherman designs sometimes feature the Royal Air Force roundel, which is often called the mod target, and in its beginnings in the 1960s the company made its mark with fashionable short-sleeved, button-down collared shirts - the details a buyer uses to recognise the brand are all in that founding description.

Five Decades of Youth Culture, Two Changes of Owner

Now having existed for five decades, the Ben Sherman shirt and brand have been adopted by almost every youth culture or style movement of the last five decades, from the mods, to 2 tone and ska, to brit pop, and is today still worn by the current bands and style leaders of the current decade. That adoption list is the brand's real biography: a shirt designed in 1963 out of Ivy League cloth became, in turn, a mod uniform, a ska staple and a Britpop standard without changing its essential design - the back hook, the back-collar button and the fabric-and-colour flair carried it across each scene. The company started with shirts, but now you can find jackets, trousers, shorts, swimwear, knitwear and more - an expansion from one garment to a full men's wardrobe, kept product-focused in this profile.

The ownership record is dated and specific. The Ben Sherman brand was owned by Atlanta-based apparel company Oxford Industries from 2004 to 2015. In 2015 Ben Sherman was sold to Marquee Brands, controlled by the American private equity firm Neuberger Berman. Marquee Brands licensed the UK operations of Ben Sherman, just six months after buying the brand, to BMB Clothing Limited, a Leeds-based company whose business includes Jeff Banks and Suit Direct stores. A researcher tracing a Ben Sherman garment's label can date its corporate home from those three facts: Oxford Industries to 2015, Marquee Brands from 2015, and BMB Clothing running the licensed UK operations from six months after the sale.

Reading This Ben Sherman Record

The Men's Fashion Brands index and its further pages, the Fashion Designer Directory, the popular brands section, and the shopping, retail, wholesale, buyers and news areas are linked in the navigation and More to Explore list. The official Ben Sherman site is linked in References. One cross-reference deserves a note: the women's Ben Sherman page records that the brand was not currently focusing on women's clothing as of 2018 - a note that does not change this men's profile, where the brand sells predominantly for men.

Ben Sherman, under B in the Men's Fashion Brands directory: a British clothing brand launched in 1963 when Ben Sherman, a passionate businessman with an artist's soul, put his own name on an Ivy League-influenced shirt with a back hook, a back-collar button and a flair for fabric, pattern and color; adopted by mods, 2 tone and ska, and Britpop across five decades; owned by Oxford Industries from 2004 to 2015 and sold to Marquee Brands in 2015.

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