The 20 Most Successful American Fashion Brands

For more than 200 years, the venerable American clothier has been outfitting almost every U.S. president. The privately held company created its iconic Original Polo Button-Down Oxford shirt in 1900.

Converse makes the Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers, iconic street footwear that’s been worn by ballers for decades. The company was founded in 1908 as a maker of galoshes and started making the sneakers that made the company famous in 1915.

Long before Tommy Hilfiger’s name became synonymous with red, white, and blue American style, the Elmira, New York, native started his retail career at age 18 selling jeans in high school. He opened a store with high school friends that was called the People’s Place.

Kate Spade, a former accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine, left the editorial side of fashion and went into retail by designing a handbag. Her creations combined utility and splashy colors. The product became an aspirational brand for young women climbing the corporate ladder.

Calvin Klein was originally recognized for his suits and coats but branched out into sportswear. Ads for his products pushed boundaries, such as the jeans ad with a 15-year-old Brooke Shields, who said in a famous television commercial, “Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

Outdoorsman Eddie Bauer opened his first sporting goods store in 1920 and in 1936 he created the “Skyliner,” a quilted goose down jacket that revolutionized outerwear.

Vans was founded by brothers Paul and Jim Van Doren along with Gordon Lee and Serge Delia in Anaheim, California, and its sporty shoes have become favored by skateboarders because they are durable and have sticky soles.

The preferred undergarment for athletes had its origins with Kevin A. Plank, a former special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team. Plank grew tired of constantly changing the cotton T-shirt under his jersey as it became wet and heavy during the game. So he devised a garment that would remain drier and lighter and in the process created the performance apparel category.

Jenna Lyons started at J. Crew in 1990 as an assistant designer in menswear after she graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York City and helped transform the company under the leadership of legendary merchant Mickey Drexler by creating colorful shoes, pencil skirts, and patterned fabrics.

After a stint in the Army, Bronx-born Ralph Lauren (née Ralph Lifshitz) persuaded New York City clothier Beau Brummel to invest in wider neck ties in the late 1960s. The ties sold well and Lauren’s clothing empire had begun.

Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss invented work pants in the 19th century to outfit gold prospectors in California that would upend fashion.

Abercrombie & Fitch has been outfitting America’s explorers, hunters, and campers since 1892, and among their customers were Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Amelia Earhart.

Teen fashion brand Hollister, also the name of a town in California, was founded in 2000 as part of the retail empire of Abercrombie & Fitch.

Sportswear company Nike was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports and was a distributor for a Japanese shoemaker. The Beaverton, Oregon-based company with the famous swoosh symbol later took the name Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory, from a suggestion by an employee.

The store with the safari theme was founded by a reporter and illustrator at the San Francisco Chronicle. They thought of the apparel theme while traveling in Australia and liked the utilitarian look of an old British Burma jacket they bought at a surplus store.

Miles and Lillian Cahn founded the company in a Manhattan loft in 1941 and made handbags and wallets based on the leather design aesthetic of baseball gloves.

American Eagle Outfitters was founded in 1977 by brothers Jerry and Mark Silverman and offers a variety of apparel for men and women.

Husband and wife Doris and Don Fisher opened the first casual clothing Gap store in 1969 in San Francisco because Don couldn’t find a pair of pants that fit. The name refers to the generation gap.

The company was founded by Roy Raymond, a businessman who was too embarrassed to shop for underwear for his wife at a department store.

The maker of jeans, hoodies, hats, tank tops, capris, and other apparel items was named after a bar in Paris.