Manhattan Industries was founded as the Manhattan Shirt Company by Lewis Levi in 1857. His son Abram Leeds took over and grew the company to be one of the largest shirt producers. Brands under the company included Henry Grethel, The Vera Companies, John Henry,

Perry Ellis Perry Edwin Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) was an American fashion designer who founded his eponymous sportswear house in the mid-1970s. Ellis' influence on the fashion industry has been called "a huge turning point" because he int ...

, Lady Manhattan, the Union Company specialty stores in Ohio, and

Frost Bros. Frost Bros. was a high-fashion retail chain based in San Antonio, Texas. The retailer opened its first store in 1917 at 217 E. Houston Street in Downtown San Antonio. Frost Bros. was known for quality personal service, including name recognitio ...

specialty stores in Texas. . The company incorporated in 1912. It had garment factories employing mostly women in several states. Operations included a factory complex in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Emmet Building The Emmet Building is a historic 16-story building located at 89–95 Madison Avenue at 29th Street (Manhattan), 29th Street, in the NoMad, Manhattan, NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by John Stewart Barney and Stoc ...

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Robert Lewis Leeds Jr. was the CEO of Manhattan Industries from 1965 to 1974, when he left to work with Victor Kiam at Remington. Larry Leeds, the president and chairman of the company in 1977, backed the creation of

Perry Ellis International Perry Ellis International is an American clothing, fashion, cosmetics and beauty company that includes a portfolio of brands distributed through multiple channels worldwide. The company focuses primarily on sportswear and casual clothing for nic ...

. In 1980, Frost Bros. was sold to Washington, D.C.-based Julius Garfinkle Company, and The Union Company to Marshall Field & Company of Chicago, which merged the Ohio stores into the Cleveland-based Halle Brothers chain. The company was acquired by Salant Corporation, after that company emerged from

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

proceedings, in an unsolicited

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

for $100 million in 1988, after the Manhattan board initially rejected the offer.Rutberg, Sidney. “Salant Takes Manhattan; Leeds out, DiPaolo New CEO.” Daily News Record, vol. 18, no. 55, Mar. 1988, p. 1. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.6469257&site=eds-live&scope=site.

References

Clothing companies of the United States American companies established in 1857 Retail companies established in 1857 Design companies established in 1857 {{fashion-stub

See also

References