Vishaal Melwani

As a third-generation tailor who spent his summers working in his family’s couture boutiques,Vishaal has dedicated his life to garment production and to honing his craft as a designer. After studying International Business and Management at the University of California, Irvine, he served as Vice President of denim exports for a Japanese trading company, where he learned the intricacies of global sourcing and logistics. The experience left a strong impression on Vishaal, and opened his eyes to the myriad challenges and inefficiencies fashion brands face while doing business overseas. Next, Vishaal launched his own trading firm--Melwanis MFG--to help younger designers navigate the complex world of global manufacturing and supply chain management. After Melwanis MFG was acquired by a larger trading firm in 2009, Vishaal turned his attention toward creating a new kind of menswear company--one that can offer high-quality clothing at reasonable prices by leveraging a vertically-integrated supply chain and a direct-to-consumer model that cuts out unnecessary middlemen and markups, and thus Combatant Gentlemen was born.