75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started

GANT is rubber-stamped as a part of American fashion history.

The sportswear imprint is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary with a new collection for Fall/Winter 2024, created as a special tribute to the brand’s heritage. But how did GANT get to this stage?

GANT was founded in 1949 by Bernard Gantmacher and was originally based in New Haven, Connecticut. At the brand’s inception, the United States was going through a period of rapid and profound change; World War 2 had blown away old traditions, and new kinds of art, music, and fashion making their way across the nation. The Gantmacher family saw this as an opportunity, leaving their contracting business behind to begin creating perfectly tailored shirts under their own label.

Over time, GANT’s distinctive and elegant Ivy League look became a cornerstone of its output. Bolder colors were introduced across different fabrics, with new prints including madras, candy-stripe, and tartan. This became known as the “Oxford Color Explosion” and has continued to operate as a key figure of the GANT archive ever since.

GANT’s sharp eye for detail and approach to creating clean-cut designs is still at the core of the brand’s DNA today. Its latest collection – spearheaded by a limited run of archival pieces – houses a slew of heavy ruggers; all of which take inspiration from the its 1990s GANT Sport sub-brand and a 1980s bleached classic rugger, acquired from a vintage dealer in South Korea.

Speaking with Hypebeast, GANT’s creative director, Christopher Bastin, said: “Keeping the brand DNA of GANT to its full potential is all about sticking together and by doing what we do best, but a little bit better, all of the time. For me, personally, it’s about surrounding myself with people who are younger, smarter, and better than I am. I’ve been at GANT for almost 20 years, so I’ve reached a point where I’ve realized what I’m good at and what I’m not good at.

“GANT is a big business, so if you work with an underdog mentality and constantly try to find that little nerve that makes you interesting to new customers, then you’re well on the way. We also don’t take ourselves too seriously, I always compare brands to people, we want GANT to be that brand that you want to go out for a pint with.”

Born in Sweden, Bastin’s introduction to the fashion world was an unorthodox one. During high school, he undertook a part-time job at a local clothing store in the city, until he returned home after a year for mandatory military service. Soon after, Bastin earned his stripes as a vintage denim connoisseur at a time when denim was front of mind for the world’s leading brands.

"We’ve been on a brand rejuvenation journey for the better part of three years, and it takes a long time internally to get all of the ducks in a row."

However, Bastin’s break came when he was headhunted to work for H&M, joining one of the company’s head offices as a product developer and buying assistant. This preceded a role at Acne Studios in its early days, before an old colleague suggested Bastin apply for a shirt designer role at GANT.

Now, as a veteran member of the GANT family, Bastin is still as hungry and open to learning as ever. “It’s so interesting to see someone who’s 25 come into the office and offer a different perspective,” Bastin tells Hypebeast. “There’s so much talent at GANT, whether it’s PR, design, or brand marketing, and because the work I do is focused on design, it’s fascinating to see how young people come in and don’t care – it may be their first job in fashion, and they don’t know about American sportswear. They come in wearing GANT in a way that is so different to how I’ve ever seen it. It’s so refreshing.”

Bastin’s openness to new perspectives is what has helped GANT in its evolution to become one of the world’s most historic and future-facing brands.. Its new collection strikes a balance between GANT’s old soul and the preppy street style of today, with new pinstriped Oxford shirts – that take inspiration from the ‘50s – designed to be worn with loose silhouettes and sneakers.

Additionally, a full-leather varsity jacket from the ‘80s has been reinvented, while a classic Ivy Harrington jacket from 1997 is updated from the original soft yellow and light olive khaki shade. A replica of an ‘80s maritime crew neck– that spells GANT in nautical flags – also sits within the collection alongside accessories such as 5-panel caps with old-school ‘G’ logotypes.

The collection hits the sweet spot between vibrancy and minimalism, with bright hues complementing straight-cut silhouettes in the form of shirts, knitwear, and more.

“There’s a lot of workwear influences in the collection,” Bastin continues. “There’s a lot more influences from western wear, but the collection is also very reserved. The collection was very effortless to create, though. There are a lot of preppy, American influences, but we also found a way to shoot and style it in a way that makes sense to us.

“We’ve been on a brand rejuvenation journey for the better part of three years, and it takes a long time internally to get all of the ducks in a row. But with the 75th anniversary and the wider campaign, we think it’s epic. We can’t wait to show it to people.”

Now, what’s next for GANT? Bastin and his wider team are currently working on the production of Fall/Winter 2025, with the creative director telling Hypebeast that a lot of Japanese subcultures inspire the majority of the pieces. Meanwhile, the GANT team is hoping to open the eyes of a new generation of consumers, as the brand’s approach to garment design and marketing enters a more gen-z approach than ever before.

“I just handed over the draft for Spring/Summer 2026,” Bastin says. “I think right now, it’s a very good time for American sportswear, as it’s very much driven by silhouettes, which I love. A lot of ‘80s and ‘90s influences are still there, but it doesn’t feel like it’s a costume anymore, it’s a very wearable look. So for me, it’s about fine-tuning those silhouettes. We’re also going to see where the workwear thing is going. That’s the fun thing; it used to all be about streetwear and big logos – which wasn’t very good for us as we’ve always been quite minimalistic – and then we started seeing workwear pop in, which is great for us as it’s a part of our DNA. We’ve never really been about subculture and youth culture in that sense – maybe the math club – so I think it’s good to see these American influences. So, with Spring, there’s always something very alluring about this – and we can’t wait to get to work.”

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75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started

75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started

75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started

75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started

75 Years Strong, GANT is Just Getting Started