Tommy Bahama

Tommy Bahama was created in 1992 by Bob Emfield and Tony Margolis, two garment-industry veterans who first met as sales reps for Britannia Sportswear in the 1970s. While spending time at their vacation homes on Florida's Gulf Coast, the pair invented a fictional persona, 'Tommy Bahama,' to embody a permanent-vacation, beachcomber lifestyle, and built a menswear line - later expanded to women's apparel, swimwear, footwear and home furnishings - around that idea. Despite the tropical branding, the company's operational base has always been Seattle, a detail the brand itself leans into as an intentional contrast. In 2003, Tommy Bahama was acquired by Oxford Industries, an Atlanta-based apparel manufacturer, and it remains part of that portfolio today.