Tommy Hilfiger.
How does one address a fashion icon? I ask Mr Hilfiger at the beginning of our Zoom call. ‘How about Tommy? Like everyone else,’ he replies, setting the tone for a casual and agreeable exchange. Our conversation takes place on the day Joe Biden officially enters the Oval Office, taking over from his predecessor and inheriting a deeply divided country. On the days leading up to Biden’s victory, Tommy was wondering how what some refer to as the most important election in the history of the United States of America would pan out. ‘They were extending the counting of the votes. There was a lot of push back, a lot of questions as to whether there was fraud et cetera. But they could never prove it, and right now we’re looking at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice-President. Today is their first day, and we must look ahead with a very positive and strong attitude. We must look at the past as an experience, well, a crazy one.’ We speak as the pandemic is still paralysing the world, but the feeling of hope is greater than ever. ‘This has been a strange time for everyone. We’re hoping to come out of it very soon with the vaccines. We’ve been working really hard from home, on Zoom, creating our collections, our marketing. We’ve learned to work in a different way now.’ Covid-19 has of course put a strain on the brand bearing his name but has also impacted his personal life for the good. ‘I got to spend more time with my family. But professionally it’s been a bit of a challenge, because I like to be around a lot of people. And I like to touch and feel what they’re working on.”
Tommy Hilfiger is one of America’s greatest fashion success stories. He has built his business from the ground up and positioned himself as a trendsetter. Mentoring and supporting young talents is more important than ever today, as the impact of the virus on burgeoning fashion labels has been tremendous. Advice from Tommy is valuable information for people stepping into the creative world. ‘Never give up. Always focus on what you love to do, because it means more than you can possibly imagine. Every day people reach obstacles, and many people give up as a result of that. But obstacles are challenges, and they can bring big rewards if you can get through them; and you will, because every obstacle has a weak point. You can get to the other side.’
Tommy Hilfiger, the brand, has been an icon of American fashion for almost 40 years. But Tommy’s adventures in fashion date back to 1969, when he invested all his life savings – about $150, equivalent to $1,000 today – in a clothing store called People’s Place, in Elmira, New York. ‘I’m proud to have first started my business at 18 years old, because everybody including my family told me I was not going to be successful. So I proved them wrong. But I did have stumbling blocks along the way. I had a bankruptcy when I was 23 years old. I ran out of money a number of times. But I figured that if I continued without giving up, I’d be successful.’ People’s Place was a hot spot for anyone interested in the evolving culture of the Sixties. ‘I wanted to have a community of cool people who loved music and fashion, and I wanted to be able to extend my offering to all people, which is why it was called the People’s Place. I found that all people love music and fashion, regardless of their background, their age, their colour, their size. It was always about a marriage of music and fashion for me. And now it’s music, fashion, pop culture, media, entertainment and the digital world.’
Before World War II, American fashion was essentially about replicating whatever Paris was doing. Then, young ambitious men and women such as Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis, Calvin Klein, Anne Klein, and Bonnie Cashin appeared with new ideas as to what American fashion could be. ‘We all started in the mid to late Sixties, but 1969 particularly, because it was the year of Woodstock. There was a fashion, music, political revolution taking place. It was all about saying, “We are the new people, and we are going to take over the establishment and we’ll do whatever we want to do, the way we want to do it, and how we want to do it,” and it was about going against what we didn’t believe in politically as well, like killing and war. This was the year of “make love not war”, and peace became the symbol.’
When thinking of Tommy, the 1985 campaign orchestrated by legendary art director George Lois springs to mind. The striking advertising took the form of a game of hangman, reading: ‘The 4 great American designers for men are: R _ _ _ L _ _ _ _ _, P _ _ _ _ E _ _ _ _, C _ _ _ _ _ K _ _ _ _, T _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ This is the logo of the least known of the four,’ with the iconic Tommy Hilfiger flag underneath. This campaign is one of the best ad campaigns ever created in the way that it was, first of all, true, but also both pompous and full of humility. ‘George Lois told me that it would be very foolish to try to do a fashion ad campaign because nobody would pay attention to it, because there was so much competition. He said that if I wanted to get my name known and get people to look at my clothes, then I had to do something disruptive. And I’ve used that word, disruptive, all these years, because I really believe that in order to break through the clutter, you have to be disruptive.’
Today, the way Tommy has reinvigorated the brand is via collaborations with famous talents who bring a breath of fresh air to the company’s creative operations. ‘I love collaborations. I love the idea of working with young up-coming designers with very cool ideas who can give me new ideas and inspiration. I love the idea of working with Lewis Hamilton, or Gigi [Hadid], or Zendaya. I love allowing these creatives and cool people to bring me ideas that we can actually execute with them and for them.’ Back in February 2020, Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton and Tommy collaborated on a collection and the kind of star-studded runway show London isn’t used to witnessing very often. The energy was wildly positive. ‘Lewis and I have a great relationship. I let him do whatever he wants to do because I know he’s got great taste. He knows exactly what he wants to wear, and what his customer base loves to wear in terms of colours, fabrics and shapes. So I was hands off and let him do what he wanted to do, and he came up with great collections.’ Tommy has indeed a track record for supporting talented young people and giving them space to flourish. He also understood early on that inclusivity was not only a key feature of a healthy company, but of a healthy society too. Black artists embraced him as the fashion designer who was speaking directly to them without an ounce of disdain at a time when rap music was nothing more than a counterculture.
But in the Nineties, Tommy found himself to be the victim of fake news, decades before the term was coined. ‘Let’s go back to around 1988-89, when I started developing clothes that were considered to be streetwear. All the hip hop boys and girls started wearing my clothes on the street in a very different way than ever before. Everything was baggy, everything oversize, everything was bright, and everything had big logos. Most of these people were in the music, hip hop, rap worlds. Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Sugarhill, Russell Simmons, Run-DMC – all of them, purveyors of rap and hip-hop were wearing my clothes. So, some people were jealous because I was gaining a lot of success with that and with my preppy casual look. One day someone accused me of being on the Oprah show and saying that if I had known Black people would’ve worn my clothes, I would’ve never become a designer. I never said that, and I had never been to that point on The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ The fashion industry is a tough business and anyone successful is only one victory away from a low blow or, in this case, a submarine-deployed torpedo attack. ‘We kept trying to figure out who made this up, and some people told us it was the competition, but we never could find out who because the internet was the wild west at the time.’ The rumour spread like wildfire until he and his entourage decided to act on it. ‘Quincy Jones is an old friend of mine. His daughter Kidada was working for me at the time, doing the styling for my shows. She even brought in Aaliyah. One day she said, “My dad wants to talk to you,” so I spoke with Quincy and he said, “Tommy, we’ve got to bury this rumour. I know what kind of person you are, and I know this rumour’s a lie. Oprah wants to invite you on the show to quash it.” So I went on the Oprah show.’ The legendary talk-show host put an end to the rumour by referring to it as a ‘big fat lie’.
It is important to set the record straight as many times as possible, because once an internet rumour is out, it becomes especially insidious. The fact is that Tommy Hilfiger – the man and the brand – have indeed been championing diversity from day one. ‘Even in 1969, within People’s Place, and then with my Tommy Hilfiger family, everybody came from all different backgrounds. Inclusion and diversity are not trends to me, they’ve always been part of my convictions.’ More importantly, Tommy enlisted Black people such as Lloyd Boston and Peter Paul behind the scenes to help him run the business. ‘Lloyd brought a sense of graphic and creative intelligence. He took my red, white and blue flag logo and turned it into something that was beyond, in terms of graphics. We started designing into the flag. We wanted people to be waving the flag when they were wearing our clothing. Lloyd became a champion of the brand and helped me make it more diverse by interviewing people and bringing them into the company to work with us.’ Tommy’s brother Andy was a hip hop culture connoisseur, always part of the scene, and alongside Peter Paul brought genuine street credibility to the brand. ‘These were the best years of my life,’ says Tommy with a warm smile. ‘I remember the day we invited Treach from Naughty by Nature to London for a fashion show at the Natural History Museum: I thought the British editors were going to jump out of their seats. They had never seen anything like that. And we had Naomi and Kate walking down the runway. It was crazy, and Treach rapped during the whole show.’
What is Tommy listening to today? ‘Well, first of all, my son is a hip hop artist going by the name of Ricky Hil. I listen to everybody from Kendrick [Lamar] to Drake, to The Weeknd, and all the newest. For me, it’s the culture. And I live in the eye of the storm, so to speak. Some people will say it’s their hobby or how they entertain themselves; but I like to see what’s new all the time. I like to watch young and creative talents rise and work with them. I mean, working with Lizzo and Cardi B too, that’s super cool stuff to me.’ Tommy is definitely invited to the cookout.
When George Floyd was murdered, Black Lives Matter protests erupted around the world, and the fashion industry discovered its racism issue. ‘It made my blood boil. But it woke people up, especially in large corporations, because these white people who are running those large corporations can make a difference. But unfortunately, something terrible had to happen in order for them to wake up. Corporations are now becoming more diverse, more inclusive, setting up programmes for people of colour. It’s music to my ears because it’s about time. About. Time.’
Giving back is also part of Tommy’s legacy. The designer has been involved with dozens of charities worldwide including a community centre in his hometown for underprivileged kids. ‘That’s the first thing I did when I first made a decent amount of money, enough to do something. Then I built a summer camp outside of New York City where every summer thousands of underprivileged young people come out of the cities, out of the ghettos where there are shootings and crime. They go to the summer camp out in the wilderness and learn about nature, they go hiking, they practice water sports, they have computer programmes. It changes the lives of many of these young children.’ Tommy Hilfiger was also the first company to step up and donate over six million dollars to build the Martin Luther King Jr memorial in Washington, DC via the Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation, whose president Guy Vickers co-chaired the Martin Luther King Jr’s National Dream Memorial Gala. ‘I also raised money from Coca-Cola and other companies for this project. And I’m also involved in autism, and my wife supports breast cancer research. We love to give back. We like to walk the walk and not talk the talk.’
The creative world had crumbled in 2020, so it has also become a responsibility to support young talents who are the future of the fashion industry. ‘The world was flipped on its head, but we saw creativity thrive. I’m so inspired by the outpouring of art and upcoming creative talent that have emerged through social media and other digital channels, ready to shape the future of our industry. As key players in fashion, it is our responsibility to support and empower them to succeed.’ Many young talents need help to either finish a collection or simply buy fabrics, and they need it now. But a big cash prize to a single person is not always the solution. Mentoring is an essential part of the global and direct initiative launched by Tommy. ‘It has never just been about offering financial support. Building long-lasting, meaningful partnerships with those who share our values is something I have always believed in. By investing time, knowledge and resources into the next generation, we can make a more positive impact on the fashion industry.’ Thank you, Tommy.
