Ben Sherman
| Founded | 1963 in Brighton, England |
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| Founder(s) |
Ben Sherman (born Arthur Benjamin Sugarman) |
| Products | Mod, Casual clothing |
Ben Sherman is a British based clothing company, designing shirts, suits, shoes, accessories, and other items that are, in common with many British brands, now made overseas, largely in the Far East. Their designs sometimes feature the Royal Air Force roundel which is often called the mod target. Some of the recent Ben Sherman shirts have unusual and complex designs, and have a Carnaby-style fit. The company makes clothing predominantly for men. The company has been owned by Oxford Industries since 2004.
History
The company was founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman (1925-1987), who was born in Brighton. He emigrated to the United States in 1946, via Canada, and changed his nationality to American. He married the daughter of a Californian clothes producer and later returned to Brighton, where he bought a shirt factory. He lived in Ditchling Road with his family opposite Hollingbury Park near the golf course. Sugarman had realised that early 1960s London-based modern jazz fans were eagerly buying the Oxford-cloth American button-down shirt brands such as Brooks Brothers, Arrow, and Hathaway, that were worn by visiting American jazz artists like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson. At the time, these were only available from official importers who had in effect, cornered this market.
Sugarman decided to produce a version of these shirts, along with a collection of the colourful, resort-wear vacation clothes that were growing in popularity, in both the U.S. and Mediterranean Europe. Mods responded, especially as Sugarman was using higher-quality materials and stitching detail than the imported shirts. The Ben Sherman Originals label was created, and by 1965, the company had opened a small office on the upper floors of an office-block in a London backstreet. This acted as the showroom for their shirt and beachwear collections.
On 11 October 2010, the company opened a store at №39 Savile Row.
On 31 October 2011, Ben Sherman launched its new eCommerce website.
References
- Paolo Hewitt & Terry Rawlings (2004). My Favourite Shirt: A History of Ben Sherman Style.
External links
- Official Ben Sherman website
- US Ben Sherman website
- German Ben Sherman website
- Australian Ben Sherman website
- Review of a Ben Sherman museum exhibition.
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