Gourt Home::Gourt :: Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger (born in Elmira, New York, on March 24, 1951) is a world-famous fashion designer best known for his eponymous "Tommy Hilfiger" and "Tommy" brands.
Biography
He grew up in an Irish Catholic family. The second of nine children, Hilfiger knew from a young age that he wanted to pursue a career in fashion.
Rather than furthering his education, he started to work in retail at 18. He opened a store named "The People's Place", in upstate New York.
Hilfiger would trek down to New York City to get his hands on jeans and bell-bottom pants that weren't available in his hometown, and sold them in his store. People didn't respond as well as he would have hoped, and The People's Place went bankrupt when Hilfiger was 25.
After turning to the design aspect of clothing by designing for the rest of his stores in upstate New York (a total of 10), Hilfiger picked up the pieces and went to New York City with his now estranged wife, Susie. Although he was offered design assistant positions with designers Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis -- and was broke -- he turned them both down with greater plans in mind.
In 1984, he founded the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation (NYSE:THB) - which went public in 1992 - introducing his signature menswear collection. By 2004 the company had 5,400 employees and revenues in excess of $1.8 billion. Hilfiger was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1995. In August 2005 Hilfiger announced he was selling his company and before the year ended, the company was purchased by Apax Partners for $1.6 billion, or $16.80 a share, all in cash. *
In 2005, a CBS TV reality show called The Cut tracked the progress of sixteen contestants as they competed for a design job with Hilfiger in similar fashion to Donald Trump's The Apprentice. In the end Hilfiger chose Chris Cortez.
Currently dating Dee Ocleppo, Hilfiger has four children. His daughter Ally Hilfiger was featured in the MTV reality show Rich Girls.
Hilfiger has a house in Greenwich, Connecticut; a Manhattan apartment; a Vermont ski house; an island getaway on Mustique in the Caribbean; and a summer house in East Hampton, New York.
Criticisms
Hilfiger has been criticised for manufacturing clothes in sweatshop conditions in the US territory of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. As a US Commonwealth, clothes made there can be labeled "Made in the USA" but federal labor laws including the minimum wage do not apply. In March 2000, the company (along with other defendants) settled a class action suit brought by Saipan garment workers which had alleged that their working conditions amounted to indentured servitude. *
Since 1996, a rumour has circulated on the internet that Tommy Hilfiger had made a racist remark on The Oprah Winfrey Show along the lines that he didn't want Black or Asian people wearing his clothes. One of the comments Hilfiger supposedly said was "if I'd known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice". The rumor has been proven false. *
In May 2006, Hilfiger had a close encounter with Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose at the Plumm in New York City. Hilfiger reportedly took a couple of swings at Axl Rose for moving his girlfriend's drink, before being carried away kicking and screaming by his own security guards. * Club owner Noel Ashman stated "Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger". Later that night Rose dedicated the song "You're Crazy" to "My good friend Tommy Hilfiger".
Product lines
True Star
True Star is a fragrance created by Tommy Hilfiger along with spokesperson Beyoncé Knowles. The face of True Star Men is Enrique Iglesias. Hilfiger has also released True Star Gold.Red Label
This is a line of denim-themed products including jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts.H by Tommy Hilfiger
An upscale line that is considered a "bridge line" because it falls between Hilfiger's couture offerings and those products offered in department stores such as Macy's. The Hilfiger company has opened several freestanding stores that sell only the H line. It features fine details in the tailoring and higher quality cloth.Tommy Hilfiger
This is the company's line of clothes sold in department stores and flagship Tommy Hilfiger stores.Tommy Sport
This line, no longer in production, came out in the 1990s and capitalized on Hilfiger's popularity in urban areas.See also
Alexandria Hilfiger - Hilfiger's daughter
External links
- Official website
- Tommy Hilfiger at the Internet Movie Database
- Urban Legends that allege false claims against Hilfiger
1951 births | Living people | 1990s fads | 2000s fads | American fashion designers | Irish-Americans | People from New York | Roman Catholics
"Tommy Hilfiger"