What WE Fashion is known for

Dutch fashion retailer tracing to a 1917 Amsterdam menswear wholesaler founded by Edwin de Waal; the Hij menswear and Zij womenswear chains merged and were renamed WE in 1999. Now headquartered in Utrecht, part of the Logo International group, with stores across the Netherlands, Belgium and beyond.

WE Fashion's history runs back to February 1917, when Egbertus Hendricus ('Edwin') de Waal founded a men's clothing wholesale business on Amsterdam's Keizersgracht, which grew into the largest menswear wholesaler in the Netherlands. His son Karel took over in 1961 and a year later opened a small four-store retail chain, the Captain Shop, renamed Hij in 1962. A women's counterpart, Zij, launched in 1986; the two head offices merged in 1989, and in 1999 the shops were unified under the single WE banner. Despite its Amsterdam origins, WE Fashion's headquarters and distribution centre are now based in Utrecht, from where it manages stores across Europe. The company today sits within the Logo International fashion group, alongside brands such as O'Neill and Van Gils.