But the key to Hilfiger's professional triumph isn't the clothes; it's the label. Tommy Hilfiger has been referred to as the Ralph Lauren of a new generation, but he has clearly come unto his own in the world of fashion. With successful lines of men's clothing, women's clothing, home furnishings, and a unisex fragrance, Hilfiger became the fashion guru of the s and the biggest thing to hit the fashion industry in a decade.
An enticement to a wide variety of consumers, his designs are casual while his prices remain moderate. Hilfiger's most praiseworthy achievement, however, is his precision of brand execution. He's packaged better than any designer since Ralph Lauren. Tommy Hilfiger was born in The second of nine children, he grew up in Elmira, New York where he devoted hours to studying the music and styles that were popular in the glamour centers of culture like New York and London.
He idolized rock stars, especially Mick Jagger. But Hilfiger didn't possess any extraordinary talents or an academic background that would propel him to success. However, he did have a certain charm and style that he supposedly inherited from his father, Richard "Hippo" Hilfiger, a watchmaker by trade.
Although, Hilfiger has described himself as a scrawny, dyslexic kid who became the class clown to mask his embarrassment over less-than-average grades. Hilfiger was still a high school senior when he set out to provide the young people of Elmira with bellbottom jeans. He brought them back to Elmira and opened a hippie clothing shop called The People's Place.
By the time he was 26, this shop had expanded into a chain of seven stores, scattered throughout upstate New York and catering to the college campus crowds. Hilfiger ran the stores for ten years, until the retail market went into an economic slump and he went bankrupt. Hilfiger discussed his business' failure with Lisa Armstrong of the London Times. Money, after a certain point, is not what drives me. Hilfiger never went to design school, but he began to experiment with fashion design in the early s, while he was running The People's Place.
By , he had sold his business and moved to Manhattan with his wife Susan Cirona, who had been a creative director of his People's Place boutiques. He began to work as a freelancer and befriended a number of people in the business, including the late designer Perry Ellis. Within five years Hilfiger was working under contract with Asian textile mogul Mohan Murjani, the man behind the trendy Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.
In , Murjani and Hilfiger placed a billboard on Times Square that announced Hilfiger would soon dominate men's clothing, although at the time he was hardly known. However, these were modest sales by fashion industry standards. They began their new endeavor cautiously, hiring experienced executives from well-known companies like Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne. Three years later they took the company public. Hip-hop music was taking off, and all of a sudden up and coming rappers and musicians were starting to wear the clothing line.
Blige ft. Grand Puba stumbled across the brand and felt so strongly about it he included it in his lyrics, rapping the name of Tommy Hilfiger into the ears of many. Snoop Dogg — Saturday Night Live. This was a pinnacle point for Tommy Hilfiger and their success story as Snoop was the most famous L.
A rapper at the time, meaning recognition for the brand erupted on a global scale. Hilfiger had a great relationship with the music industry from the get go and although this did continue, it was becoming less reliable as other brands began to take a share of the exposure.
When he was 18, he opened a store called The People's Place in Elmira that sold hippie supplies like bell-bottoms, incense and records.
Wildly successful at first-Hilfiger soon had a chain of stores and a six-figure income-a downturn in the economy hit his business hard, and he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in In , Hilfiger fell in love with Susie Carona, an employee at one of his stores.
The couple married and moved to Manhattan shortly after the bankruptcy. They were hired as a husband-and-wife design team by the apparel brand Jordache, but were fired after only a year.
Hilfiger developed a reputation as a hard-working young designer, and was considered for jobs at Perry Ellis and Calvin Klein. What he really wanted, however, was his own label. In , Hilfiger was approached by Indian entrepreneur Mohan Murjani, who was looking for a designer to head a men's sportswear line. Murjani allowed Hilfiger to design the label under his own name, sealing the deal.
The pair announced Hilfiger's arrival onto the scene with a blitz marketing campaign that included a bold billboard in New York City's Times Square announcing Hilfiger as the next big thing in American fashion. Their tactics rankled the fashion establishment, which looked down on Hilfiger's naked self-promotion-Calvin Klein even got into a shouting match with the billboard's creator at a New York City restaurant. Though Hilfiger was embarrassed by the fallout, the bold tactics worked.
Hilfiger's line of preppy clothes with his trademark red, white and blue logo soon became wildly popular. By the early s, the hip-hop world embraced oversized versions of Hilfiger's clothes, and the brand assiduously courted rap stars and celebrities.
Snoop Dogg's choice of a giant Tommy Hilfiger t-shirt during a Saturday Night Live performance in March brought sales figures to an all-time high. Despite Hilfiger's commercial success, however, the fashion elite still snubbed him.
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