Van Heusen

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Van Heusen is American clothing brand under PVH Corp., formerly known as the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation which focus on business wear & casual wear needs.[1] Known for revolutionary style since 1921, Van Heusen meets the needs of the modern professional with stylish and innovative classics. From dress shirts with collars that stretch 1/2 an inch. and suits featuring natural stretch, to pants with flexing waistbands, which more focus on comfort aspect of it's clothing.[2]

History

The history of 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).[3]

Van Heusen patented the “soft-folding collar” that offered a more comfortable way to wear a dress shirt. This new innovation was the inspiration for Van Heusen’s first advertising campaign, “the World’s Smartest Collar” in 1921.[4]

Van Heusen "The world’s smartest shirts" ads 1952

Racist Ads

Van Heusen known for their campaign "The world’s smartest shirts" but sadly many of their ads are sexist and also racist. This racist ad appeared in the March 24, 1952 issue of LIFE magazine. In this Van Heusen ad, the written text tells male audience, "Four out of five men want oxfords ...in these new Van Heusen styles". The ad depicts five middle-aged men in a line, four white men wearing Van Heusen clothing styles, and one man of black race without clothes.

The subtext has a clear meaning as it is persuading the audience to be unlike the outcast race of the second man (portrayed black-skinned) from the bottom of the ad. The ad is conveying that only white men are smart enough to be fashionable and wear clothes from Van Heusen (stereotyping). The ad is successful on being racist and treating other ethnicities as if they are not eligible of owning Oxfords from Van Heusen. The ad also implies to the audience that they shouldn't be like the outcast man and buy Van Heusen clothes.[5]

References

  1. PVH (company). Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  2. Van Heusen. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  3. PVH (company). Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  4. St. John, Olivia. SPECIAL RETRO AD OF THE WEEK: VAN HEUSEN, 1949. Mascola. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  5. Gockley, Levi. Bad Ad: Van Heusen Clothing. Bulb. 2 November 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2021.