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PVH Corp. (formerly Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation) is an American clothing company headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, with policy-making offices in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Its history traces to 1881 when Moses Phillips and his wife Endel began sewing shirts by hand and selling them to coal miners in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Through a series of mergers - with D. Jones & Sons in 1907 (becoming Phillips-Jones), acquisition of the Van Heusen collar patent in 1957, and a century of brand acquisitions - the company became PVH Corp. in 2011. Its two primary brands are Tommy Hilfiger (acquired $3 billion, March 2010) and Calvin Klein (acquired 2002). As of April 2023, PVH had over 120,000 employees globally, with manufacturing and sourcing operations across 14 countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, and Honduras. Stefan Larsson became CEO on February 1, 2021, succeeding Emanuel Chirico. On February 4, 2025, China placed PVH on its "Unreliable Entities List" amid allegations it boycotted Xinjiang cotton.
No named group-level creative director is documented. Tommy Hilfiger, founder of his eponymous brand, remained involved in the brand after the $3B acquisition. Calvin Klein (the designer) sold the brand in 2002; PVH has operated it with successive creative directors since. Stefan Larsson (CEO from February 2021) comes from a retail operations background (previously Global President at H&M, CEO at Old Navy). PVH distributes to JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Belk, Dillard's, David Jones, and Myer, as well as Amazon, reflecting a department store wholesale distribution model across price tiers (Arrow → Van Heusen → Geoffrey Beene → Tommy Hilfiger for business/casual; Izod → Tommy Hilfiger for preppy/lifestyle).
Tommy Hilfiger - premium American lifestyle brand; acquired $3B, March 2010; men's, women's, and kids' apparel; accessories; denim; footwear; home; preppy Americana aesthetic with flag graphic, nautical stripe, and primary colour blocking as key surface design languages; Dutch-American brand with strong European commercial positioning
Calvin Klein - American minimalist fashion brand; acquired 2002; four tiers (Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein Sport, ck Calvin Klein); core categories: jeans, underwear (CK waistband logo = one of the most commercially visible branded surface motifs globally), fragrance, footwear; Warnaco acquisition (2013) consolidated underwear and jeans production under PVH
Necktie licences (via Superba, acquired 2007) - Arrow, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Perry Ellis, Ted Baker, Michael Kors, JOE Joseph Abboud, Original Penguin, Jones New York; 10 brand names in neckwear = significant volume production of repeat pattern designs
Former Heritage Brands (sold to ABG 2021): Van Heusen, Izod, Arrow (back to 2000), Geoffrey Beene; shirt-heritage brands with the dress shirt category at their core
PVH operates approximately 700 outlet stores under Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brand names, alongside a major department store wholesale operation. Calvin Klein full-price stores operate at 10,000-20,000 sq ft. The brand distributes to department stores across the US (JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Belk, Dillard's) and Australia/New Zealand (Myer, David Jones). The 2004 Trump Signature Collection licensing agreement was terminated in July 2015 after Macy's discontinued the line following Trump's comments on immigration. The January 2020 Speedo sale ($170M to Pentland Group) unwound the Warnaco-era North American Speedo licence. The August 2021 Heritage Brands sale to ABG ($220M for Izod, Van Heusen, Arrow, Geoffrey Beene) fundamentally simplified PVH's portfolio to Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.
PVH Corp. operates across two primary strategic segments: the Tommy Hilfiger business (serving premium lifestyle and aspirational preppy positioning globally) and the Calvin Klein business (minimalist luxury, CK monogram apparel and underwear). Both are global brands with multi-category licensed and wholesale operations - generating revenue through department store wholesale, own-brand retail (~700 outlet and full-price stores), and global licensing. The 2021 sale of the Heritage Brands division (Van Heusen, Izod, Arrow, Geoffrey Beene) to Authentic Brands Group simplified PVH to a two-brand strategic portfolio. The Calvin Klein acquisition (2002) and Tommy Hilfiger acquisition (2010) transformed PVH from a heritage shirt manufacturer into an operator of two of the world's most commercially successful American fashion brands.
PVH Corp.'s surface pattern design relevance is concentrated in its two flagship brands and historically in its necktie licensing operations.
Tommy Hilfiger's surface language is among the most commercially recognised graphic design identities in accessible premium fashion globally. The Tommy Hilfiger flag motif - a rectangular red, white, and navy tricolour with the brand name - is one of the most replicated branded surface graphics in fashion history and is applied consistently across apparel, accessories, and home categories. Beyond the flag, Tommy Hilfiger's seasonal direction has historically drawn on: preppy Americana stripe (horizontal colour block, rugby stripe); nautical graphic references; plaid and tartan in outerwear and suiting; bold primary colour-blocked panels. The Tommy Hilfiger acquisition for $3 billion in 2010 made PVH the owner of this commercial surface design vocabulary at scale.
Calvin Klein underwear waistband - the CK Calvin Klein all-caps waistband logo on underwear is one of the most commercially significant pieces of branded surface design in the global fashion market. Visible above clothing, reproduced in billions of garments globally and widely counterfeited, the CK waistband functions as a brand surface motif that has become a cultural reference. The Warnaco acquisition in 2013 consolidated the Calvin Klein underwear and jeans business - where this motif has its highest commercial impact - under direct PVH ownership.
Necktie production (Superba, from 2007) - the necktie product category is structurally a surface pattern design category. Repeat tie patterns - repp stripe, foulard, medallion, paisley, geometric - are the primary design and commercial differentiators in neckwear. PVH's Superba acquisition gave it 10 brand necktie licences (Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Perry Ellis, Ted Baker, Michael Kors, DKNY, Arrow, JOE Joseph Abboud, Original Penguin, Jones New York) - a significant concentration of branded repeat pattern production under a single manufacturer.
Dress shirts - PVH's historic heritage as a shirt manufacturer (1881 Moses Phillips; Van Heusen collar innovation 1910; self-folding collar patent 1919) places woven surface design (stripe, check, dobby weave, jacquard, print) at the brand's founding activity. The dress shirt category at mass scale requires extensive seasonal surface design work.
PVH Corp. (formerly Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation) is an American clothing company headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, with policy-making offices in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
's surface pattern design relevance is concentrated in its two flagship brands and historically in its necktie licensing operations. Tommy Hilfiger's surface language is among the most commercially recognised graphic design identities in accessible premium fashion globally.
PVH Corp. operates across two primary strategic segments: the Tommy Hilfiger business (serving premium lifestyle and aspirational preppy positioning globally) and the Calvin Klein business (minimalist luxury, CK monogram apparel and underwear).
PVH operates approximately 700 outlet stores under Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brand names, alongside a major department store wholesale operation. Calvin Klein full-price stores operate at 10,000-20,000 sq ft.
1865: Dramin Jones (Prussian immigrant) founds D. Jones & Sons, shirt manufacturers 1881: Moses Phillips and wife Endel begin selling hand-sewn shirts from pushcarts in Pottsville, Pennsylvania; business grows to NYC 1907: D. Jones & Sons merges with M. H.
United States