Tommy Hilfiger

Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger
Image:Hilfiger tommy logo1.jpg
Personal Information
Name	Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger
Nationality	American
Birth date	March 24 1951 (age 57)
Birth place	Elmira, New York
Working Life
Label Name	Tommy Hilfiger

Thomas ("Tommy") Jacob Hilfiger (born in Elmira, New York, on March 24, 1951) is a world-famous fashion designer, and creator of the eponymous "Tommy Hilfiger" and "Tommy" brands.

Biography

He grew up in an Irish Catholic family, the second of nine children. He attended Elmira Free Academy for high school. Rather than furthering his education, he started to work in retail at the age of 18. Hilfiger would trek down to New York City to get his hands on jeans and bell-bottom pants which he customized and resold at a local downtown Elmira, New York store, Brown's. Later he opened his own store named "The People's Place" around the block in downtown Elmira. Although the store was a hot spot for teens with frequent contests and live DJ appearances, there were often more people hanging out than shopping. Over the years, a number of stores closed in downtown Elmira as shopping traffic shifted to the new Arnot Mall in Horseheads, New York. It wasn't long before The People's Place became another casualty. After seven years, The People's Place went bankrupt, when Hilfiger was 25. The site of the original store has since been demolished with a number of nearby stores to make room for the First Arena, home of the Elmira Jackals Hockey team.

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 moved 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, it was purchased by Apax Partners for $1.6 billion, or $16.80 a share, all in cash.[1]

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.

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.[2] 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."

He is dating Dee Ocleppo. Hilfiger has four children. His daughter Ally 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 summer houses in East Hampton, New York and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Criticisms

Hilfiger has been criticised for manufacturing clothes in sweatshop conditions in the United States territory of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. As a U.S. 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.[3]

Hilfiger has been labeled as a racist, based on rumors that he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and said, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them." These rumors (via email, circa 1996) have since been proven conclusively false. Hilfiger has never even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show.^[1]

Product lines

True Star

True Star is a fragrance created by Hilfiger along with spokesperson Beyoncé Knowles.

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 sold primarily in freestanding boutiques devoted exclusively to this line. Shirts from this line begin at $95.

Tommy Hilfiger

This is the company's line of clothes sold in department stores and flagship stores.

Tommy Sport

This line, no longer in production, came out in the 1990s and capitalized on Hilfiger's popularity in urban areas.

Tommy Sailing

This line was due to be released in January or February 2007.

Other

The Tommy Hilfiger brand sponsored several Forumla 1 teams including Team Lotus in the early and mid 90's and Ferrari in the early 2000's.

References

1. ^ Snopes.com Tommy Rot. Accessed 3 September 2006. Last updated 6 May 2006

Wikipedia information about Tommy Hilfiger This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tommy Hilfiger". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.