Who Owns Tommy Bahama?

Tony Margolis, Bob Emfield, and Lucio Dalla Gasperina founded Tommy Bahama in Seattle in 1992. The three built an entire brand around an invented character: a fictional island-dwelling man who embodied relaxed, affluent leisure, an approach unusual at the time for its narrative-first brand architecture. The silk camp shirt became the signature product.

The concept scaled through the 1990s as department store shops grew into freestanding stores. The brand pioneered the retail-restaurant hybrid in apparel: Tommy Bahama's restaurant-bar locations, where customers could buy a shirt and a mai tai under one roof, became destination spots and a durable differentiator no major competitor replicated.

Oxford Industries, the Atlanta apparel maker that had evolved from Lanier Clothes into a branded apparel company, acquired Tommy Bahama in 2003 for approximately $325 million, then its largest deal. The acquisition anchored Oxford's transformation from manufacturer into brand owner.

Under Oxford, Tommy Bahama grew to roughly 160 stores, an e-commerce business, and a wholesale presence in department stores and resorts, while extending into women's, swim, golf, and home categories. The brand's island aesthetic survived every casualwear trend cycle by staying precisely in its lane.

Fiscal 2025, ended January 31, 2026, produced $828.5 million in net sales, down 5 percent, reflecting a softer consumer environment for premium apparel. The brand remains Oxford's engine, producing more revenue than the rest of the portfolio combined.