Who owns jantzen swimwear

Jantzen and brothers John and Roy Zehntbauer produced the first elasticized swimsuits ever made. The idea caught on, and soon Portland Knitting was making more wool swimsuits than sweaters. During the s and s, synthetics replaced itchy wool. And in , Jantzen went back to making sweaters as sportswear lines were added. That happened before I was born.

Since , Jantzen has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Bell Inc. All Sections. The company revived its Clean Water Program in With national and local environmental groups and retailers, Jantzen promoted beach and bay cleanups throughout the country and purchased the first environmental billboard advertisement in Times Square. At the same time, Jantzen suits appeared on contestants in the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, increasing the glamour of the brand.

The Portland plant employs 45 people, including: designers, sewers, quality control personnel, product coordinators, and archivists. Glisan, Suite , in Portland, not far from the Willamette River where the founders tested the first swimming suit over a century ago.

Ron McCreight seated right presents ad campaign "Wear a smile and a Jantzen" to overseas licensees, The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history.

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Jantzen's "Red Diving Girl. Some are prim as old maids, others so sexy they nearly steam. Much as Alhadeff would love to have one of each Jantzen swimsuit ever made, she doesn't, although new purchases and donations of vintage suits arrive frequently. The oldest in the collection is a black and gold striped tank from She wore a size 12 and told a Jantzen distributor she liked the suits for their long torsos. The company liked her back: It sent her a letterman jacket, its back adorned with the diving girl logo and embroidered with the name of one of the world's most stylish women: Diana.

By then, style had reigned at Jantzen a long time. In and '58 even the great Hubert de Givenchy designed Jantzen suits in his Paris salon. Suits tell only part of Jantzen's story.

Shortly after changing its name in to Jantzen Knitting Mills, the company in remote little Portland set its sights on big things. It built a national sales force and distribution channels. Legend has it, Alhadeff says, that sales manager Mitch Heinemann pulled Jantzen swimsuits on over his business suit, proving the product's superior stretch factor to buyers.

Ads slick with psychology pushed a societal shift: Taking a dip wasn't a chore anymore. It was a choice. Jantzen, ads decreed, was "the suit that changed bathing to swimming.

Tucked into manila envelopes and file folders, old ads illustrated by the top artists of the day fill floor-to-ceiling shelves in the archive. One ad diagrams the crawl, scissors kick, side and breast strokes.

Are you an expert? It's the suit Olympic champions wear! Over the years, the company persuaded many other amateur and professional athletes -- from swimmers and race car drivers to golfers and skiers -- to wear its garments. Jantzen wrapped Hollywood in tight, too.

Its catalogs pictured such stars or up-and-comers as Loretta Young, Dick Powell and James Garner wearing Jantzen; in turn, the actors used the glamour shots for publicity. But one athlete, one star, stood out above all the others. After Red Diving Girl first appeared on the cover of a Jantzen catalog -- or style sheet, as it was called -- plenty of women claimed the toned, frisky logo was modeled after them.

Truth was, in the late s artist Florenz Clark sketched divers training at Portland's. Research suggests that the finished logo was drawn from a composite of those sketches and refined with help from Clark's artist husband, Frank. They made sure she didn't catch cold: The original diving girl takes the plunge in long socks and red and white wool hat.

She was a winner, remaining one of the longest-lived apparel icons, even after a few face-lifts and tummy tucks. Jantzen's marketing wizards made the most of her. They had 10, Red Diving Girl stickers printed in spring , sending them to retailers for window displays. By , 5 million diving-girl decals decorated cars around the country, including those that Alhadeff's father drove.

Jantzen capitalized on her popularity, offering diving girl hood ornaments and plastering her image on paperweights, towels, ashtrays, pens, luggage tags, golf balls and more. Getting the name and logo out there long has been a company strength, if Miss America pageants and Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues are good indicators.

Jantzen hit a marketing home run two weeks ago when the cable TV series "Mad Men" wrote the company's founders into the season-premier script. For all three past seasons, Jantzen has provided the show, about s Madison Avenue, with images from its archive for use as set decor.

The comedic drama "Ugly Betty" includes a billboard in one of its sets. It reads, "All girls are gorgeous in Jantzen. In the July 25 "Mad Men" plot, pitchman Don Draper shows Jantzen family executives his idea for what will sell: a bikini-clad model with a headline covering her breasts. The fictional Jantzens, preferring wholesome over suggestive, hate it.