Hudson's

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Founded by Joseph Lowthian Hudson in Detroit in 1881, the J. L. Hudson Company grew from a modest clothing business into Hudson’s: the department-store colossus woven into the city’s daily life. Its downtown flagship on Woodward Avenue became the Big Store, with floors upon floors of fashion, furniture, gifts, lunch counters, elevators, and the sort of retail grandeur built before “add to cart” ruined everybody’s posture.

Hudson’s expanded as Detroit did. The company opened a major suburban store at Northland Center in Southfield in 1954, then added other locations across Michigan and beyond. The downtown building rose to 25 stories and was regarded as the world’s tallest department store until 1961—because apparently a respectable department store needed its own skyline.

In 1969, the Dayton Company purchased Hudson’s and the businesses became Dayton-Hudson Corporation. The downtown flagship closed on January 17, 1983, though Hudson’s corporate staff remained in the building for several years. The landmark was demolished on October 24, 1998, but its absence somehow remained very loud.

In 2001, the remaining Hudson’s stores were rebranded as Marshall Field’s. Our Hudson's collection celebrates Detroit retail mythology: grand counters, giant flags, holiday windows, and a store that treated buying a toaster like an event worthy of architecture.