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The Detroit workwear original since 1889 — duck canvas, the chore coat, and WIP’s street translation.
Best for The duck-canvas chore coat from Detroit's workwear original since 1889
Denim & Workwear — Founded 1800–1899
7 stores · curated ORBIS register
Visit official site ↗Helly Hansen
Heritage HouseNorway
Founded 1877 in Moss, Norway by sea captain Helly Juell Hansen and his wife Margrethe, making oiled-linen waterproofs for sailors; won a diploma at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition and grew into a global technical outdoor and workwear brand.
Best for HH sailing polos; Sailing, ski heritage; Sailing, ski
Helly Hansen was founded in 1877 in Moss, Norway, by ship's captain Helly Juell Hansen and his wife, Maren Margrethe. Drawing on Hansen's 21 years at sea, the company's first products were oilskin jackets, trousers, sou'westers, and tarpaulins, waterproofed by soaking linen in linseed oil to protect sailors from harsh Nordic maritime conditions. The gear won a diploma of excellence at the 1878 Paris World Exhibition, just a year after founding, and sales reportedly reached about 10,000 pieces within the company's first five years. Over the following century and a half the brand expanded from maritime oilskins into skiing, sailing, and broader technical outdoor and workwear apparel, becoming a recognized name in performance protective clothing worldwide. It remains headquartered in Norway while manufacturing and selling globally today.
Visit official site ↗Kaihara Denim Mill
Heritage HouseFukuyama, Hiroshima / Japan
Kaihara is a Fukuyama denim manufacturer whose roots date to 1893. It developed Japan’s first rope-dyeing machine for denim in 1970 and now integrates dyeing, weaving and finishing within its denim-production system.
Best for Japanese rope-dyed denim from a vertically integrated Fukuyama mill
Visit official site ↗Kurabo Mills
Heritage HouseKurashiki, Okayama / Japan
The textile conglomerate — a Japanese mill (1888), produces everything from medical textiles to premium denim, and the Okayama institution that underpins the region's textile economy.
Best for 1888, textile conglomerate, oldest mills, regional economy.
Visit official site ↗USA
The Union-All inventor, 1889 — 101 riders, storm-flap westerns and denim.
Best for Denim, heritage
Visit official site ↗Online
The original blue jean — 501s since 1873, copper rivets from Reno to San Francisco, and the Vintage Clothing line recreating every era.
Best for 501 jeans and Vintage Clothing reproductions
Visit official site ↗Yarmouth Oilskins
Heritage HouseGreat Yarmouth / Online
Great Yarmouth workwear maker, incorporated 1898 as Johnson and Sons before forming Yarmouth Stores Ltd. Once supplied Scottish herring-fishing crews with oilskin smocks and aprons; today a family firm with about 20 machinists making natural-fibre smocks.
Best for Smocks & work jackets
The firm's recorded history begins on 1 February 1898, when Johnson and Sons became a limited company in Great Yarmouth. Three days later, four of its partners joined other local businessmen to found Yarmouth Stores Ltd, set up to trade as outfitters, clothiers, hosiers and sellers of waterproof clothing, oils and drapery. The company relabeled its waterproof lines under the Yarmouth Stores name and built an export trade in oilskins, knitwear and workwear that reached markets abroad.
Before the Second World War the firm employed more than 1,200 people, most of them machinists in Great Yarmouth factories sewing overalls, uniforms, smocks and other workwear. During the herring-fishing industry's peak, the company was a major supplier to Scottish fishing crews and the women who processed the catch, providing oilskin skirts, aprons and boots suited to gutting and packing work on the quaysides. When the herring industry declined between the 1930s and 1950s, the firm lost a core part of its market and some retail branches closed.
The 1960s brought a new customer base after gas was discovered off the Norfolk coast: the company began supplying vessels and crews working the gas fields with chandlery, equipment and protective clothing, a service line that continues today. The business remains family-owned, still making its smocks and oilskins in Great Yarmouth with a factory of around 20 machinists working in natural fibres to original historic patterns.
Visit official site ↗Curated ORBIS register · official links shown where recorded