Written by Jesse Thorn (@jessethorn) and Derek Guy (@dieworkwear) via Complex  

50. Nudie Cohn

Founder: Nudie Cohn
Year Founded: 1947
Most Western wear is built for work, but not the Western wear of Nudie Cohn. Cohn was a Ukranian tailor who got his start in the 1940s making clothing for country and western singers out of Hollywood. His first customer was Tex Williams, and his business grew into the 1970s. He was known for almost absurdly ornate designs – rhinestones, insane embroidery and wild colors were his hallmarks. He even customized cars, adding longhorn steer horn hood ornaments, silver dollars and embroidered seats. For sheer hutzpah, no one in menswear has ever topped Nudie.

49. Loro Piana 

Founder: Loro Piana
Year Founded: 1924

Loro Piana originally began in 1924 as an Italian wool mill, but the family behind the company have been textile traders since 1812. Like Zegna, the company has long moved beyond just textile production, and is now a fully integrated business where they produce a full menswear (and womenswear) line. All aspects of production – textile fabrication, garment production, marketing, and retail is controlled under one house. In the 1970s, they developed Tasmanian wool, which was effectively the world’s first branded cloth. Today, they are the single biggest producer of cashmere fabrics.

48. Abercrombie & Fitch 

Founder: David T. Abercrombie & Ezra Fitch
Year Founded: 1892

Before Abercrombie & Fitch was a teenybopper’s nightmare, it was the greatest sporting goods store in the world. For nearly a hundred years, it sold safari suits, sporting tweeds, walking sticks, elephant guns, canvas tents and other accoutrements of the gentleman adventurer. The brand closed its flagship in 1977, and while it was briefly revived as a catalog and mall operation, it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and transformed into what it is today. In its heyday, it famously sold to pith helmeted men like Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway, and it helped inspire sellers like the original Banana Republic and J. Peterman.

47. Knize

Founder: Josef Knize
Year Founded: 1858

Established in 1858 by a Czech tailor, Knize has championed traditional men’s clothing for over 150 years. In that time, they’ve offered ready-to-wear clothing, their own signature fragrance, a line of toiletries, and a world-class level of bespoke tailoring. The last of which is defined by their signature silhouette – three button front, side vents, soft shoulders, and what Alan Flusser once described as a “rounded-off shape.” Something similar to Anderson & Sheppard and Caraceni in its emphasis on softness. It’s perhaps one of the first cases of a company successfully operating as both a menswear brand and traditional tailoring house.

46. Sulka (Amos Sulka & Co.) 

Founder: Amos Sulka and Leon Wormser
Year Founded: 1895

“Nothing from Sulka ever goes out of style,” wrote the New York Times’ Anne-Marie Schiro in 1985, but sadly, Sulka closed its doors in 2001. The brand was originally founded as a shirtmaking operation for husky firefighters and policemen, but became one of the world’s most renowned men’s brands. Sulka was best known for producing the finest accessories in the world – customers like Henry Ford and Clark Gable wore its neckties. Its smoking jackets and loungewear were also among the best money could buy. Search eBay for Sulka dressing gowns and find that enthusiasts still pay hundreds of dollars for Sulka’s silks. There are often rumors that the brand will be revived, and we’d love to see it.

45. Thom Browne 

Founder: Thom Browne
Year Founded: 2003

Few designers have changed the course of men’s fashion as much as Thom Browne. When Browne won the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award in 2006, his aesthetic was widely mocked. His suits were a riff on the company man suits of the early 1960s. They were produced in simple, conservative fabrics and colors (often gray flannel), with narrow lapels and a slim body. Most remarkable, though, were the proportions. Browne’s suits still feature comically short bodies and are typically show with absurdly short trousers. People laughed, then and now, but they also took note. Today’s suits and pants are dramatically shorter in the body and pant than ever before, a trend which can be traced directly back to Browne, and the tendency towards a revived (now cheeky) men’s conservatism has to be attributed in no small part to Browne as well.

44. Fruit of the Loom

Founder: Robert Knight
Year Founded: Founded 1851, Trademark Registered 1871

Simply put, no brand says “underwear” like Fruit of the Loom. We could have put Jockey on this list instead, but I’ve always liked that fruit logo. Over the years, Fruit of the Loom has had its ups and downs – it was purchased from bankrupcy by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in the 1990s, and sold to the Russel Corporation a few years later. It’s still one of the strongest brands in menswear.

 

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