J. Press has been around since the start of the 20th century. It was founded by Jacobi Press in 1902 inside the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. While the New Haven store remains the company's largest, J. Press also has branches in Washington, D.C., New York and Cambridge in Massachusetts. It is the first brand from the United States to be licensed in Japan when it entered the Asian market in 1974. The Japanese clothing company called Onward Kashiyama now owns the company.