Gant History
Earlier company descriptions, brand line-ups, store counts and photographs from the history of Gant, kept for historical reference.
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The Company Description of Its Time
For Gant, it all began with shirts, and the brand says it has never stopped reinventing them. Born in 1949, the Gant shirt is presented in the historical record as rich in legacy and history - but the human story starts four decades earlier. Berl Gantmacher was a miller's son from Miropol, Ukraine, who travelled via Rotterdam and took a steamship to New York City; Ellis Island archives record him arriving on November 12, 1907, aged 17. He changed his name to Bernard, studied at night, worked in the garment industry by day, fought for the US Army in the First World War, and then set up the Par-Ex Shirt Company in Brooklyn, making shirts for other labels.
The University Look and the Details That Built a Brand
Producing under its own label changed American menswear, per the filing, because the shirt suited a new style emerging nearby: the American East Coast University Look, on the campus of Yale University. At the Yale Co-op store, Gant shirts flew off the shelves, and in 1954 - the year LIFE magazine declared New Haven the home of that look - the company changed its name to Gant of New Haven. Its success was built on unprecedented use of colour, form and fabric, plus attention to detail no rival matched, starting with the perfect roll of a Gant collar.
The refinements are listed like a patent roll, and each solves a wearer's problem: the box pleat for extra comfort, the back collar button to keep the tie in place, the locker loop on the back, and the button tab that made tie and shirt match perfectly. By the 1960s the company was known simply as Gant Shirtmakers. Growth continued with a collection of American Sportswear in 1971 and the GANT Rugger sub-brand three years later. Headquarters in Sweden were established in the following decades, adding a European sensibility to an all-American brand; today the filing lists menswear, womenswear, children's clothing, home products, accessories and fragrances, built on authenticity, quality, sport and timeless good taste. In 2010 Gant opened a new store back in New Haven, where it all began.
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