H.I.S. company was founded by Henry I. Siegel as Honesdale Manufacturing in 1923. Headquartered in New York but with production in Tennessee, the company specialized in private-label work clothes and jeans for men and boys. Honesdale's homefront contribution to America's World War II effort included the manufacture of field jackets for the armed forces. After Henry's death in 1949, his 19-year-old son, Jesse, assumed control, being the first to take khakis---an old work clothes favorite---put a buckle on the back, and aimed them toward the youth market. The shift doubled sales from $9 million in 1949 to over $18 million by the mid-1950s. In honor of his father, in 1956 he created the H.I.S. brand from his initials and evolved into an American label for sportswear for young men. Beginning in 1964, the company also developed women's jeans at the suggestion of Jesse's wife. HIS was the first jeans manufacturer to offer custom-fit leg lengths and widths. Since the 1970s, the brand has also been represented on the European market and became a leading manufacturer of women's jeans on the German market by the early 1990s.
For the 1970's advertisement above, HIS highlighted their Modnicks line of apparel for the guy needing attention.
Nice piece about H.I.S. clothes, I didn't know the firm's origin. I think the advert is from 1966 though. Peter Tork is wearing the exact same shirt in an episode of the Monkees (Success Story) from that year. I have the same shirt, plus a few other vintage H.I.S. items.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional background regarding Tork! Timely considering the recent death of Nesmith. Wear your shirt proudly.
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