Gant

Brand created by Bernard Gant, an emigrant from Ukraine who landed in Manhattan in 1914 and began to sew shirt collars in a workshop where his future wife took care of buttons and buttonholes. Together, in addition to two children, they created a small business in New Haven, Connecticut where they manufactured shirts for themselves and for big brands such as Brooks Brothers. That was in 1941. In 1949, when the two children joined the company, the first sportswear Collection came out, along with the famous button-down shirt that was sold in the best shops. The company, number two in the world for the manufacture of shirts, was sold in 1969 to the Phillips Van Heusen Corporation. In the early 1980s, a group of young Swedes obtained, through the licensing of the brand, full creative independence. A European Collection, more appealing than the American one, was created. In 1999, a majority of the shares in Gant were acquired by the Swedish firm Pyramid Sportswear (the other partners are Phillips Van Heusen and the French group LVMH), which began to plan the company’s future.
Van Heusen, an American company specialized in men’s shirts which recently acquired Calvin Klein, agrees to sell its minority shareholding in the Swedish firm Gant. The company is acquired for about $19 million by a new group owned by LV Capital, a company financed by LVMH, the three companies that founded Gant, and the privately held company 3i Group.