We're Proud to Share Our Rich History
In 1897, a young tailor from Brooklyn named Samuel Christenfeld decides to start designing luxury clothing with an “english riding flare” and called it "Tailoring by Christenfeld, in Brooklyn, NY”. Nine years later, in 1906, he formed a partnership with Mel Halpern and officially changed the name to Halpern and Christenfeld.
After a few years of being partners Christenfeld decided to buy out Halpern, take controlling interest of the company, and changed the name to H-C for legal purposes. Shortly after he changed the name, again, to HBarC.
After Samuel’s death in 1939, HBarC focused on the western market, and started to grow internationally. Seymour moved to California to open the Los Angeles office and established the Hollywood arm of the brand. As a maker of authentic western wear, and the popularity of western movies, many movies began to use HBarC. Catering to the Hollywood elite, HBarC supplied clothes for western movies clothing the likes of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Elvis Presley, John Travolta to name only a few.
HBarC recruited Nudie Cohn, the famous Rodeo Tailor to begin designing shirts for the brand. HBarC actually produced some of Nudies production lines. They pushed the limits of that day with embroidery and appliqué work, and many of these advances became the new standards in western wear. It was in those years that Nude worked with a young man named Manuel Cuevas, who would later go on to become one of the preeminent mens western clothing designers.
After Bernie's death in 1982, Seymour carried HBarC alone and directed garment design and manufacturing until his death in 1996.
In the late 90's, with NAFTA implemented, manufacturing in Los Angeles became unfeasible to provide the same quality for competitive prices.
HBarC, as a business, took a hiatus from production until a business model could be developed to reposition the brand. HBarC deadstock / lightly used vintage pieces exploded in popularity on traditional ecommerce platforms like eBay, but also new social platforms such as Etsy, Poshmark, etc.
In 2016 the company noticed Western surging back into pop-culture for the first time in decades re-launched our own production in late 2016. Our focus has been to distinguish ourselves as a unique brand catering to those who don't mind standing out with creative designs and the highest quality product in the world of western wear.
We have always had the philosophy that if you make a quality product, (evidence is how many of our shirts reach the ages of 80 and 90 years), people will be able to enjoy the comfort and look for many years. Now, the rest of the industry is realizing that fast fashion is bad for the environment so we are seeing a movement to trying to offer new fabrics and better produced items; something we have been doing for more than a century.