Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger at the Mercedez Benz fashion fest in México City
Born March 24, 1951 (1951-03-24) (age 59)
Elmira, New York, U.S.A.
Nationality American
Education Elmira Free Academy
Labels Tommy Hilfiger

Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger (born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and founder of the brand Tommy Hilfiger.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Hilfiger was born and raised in Elmira, New York. The second of nine children, he grew up in an Irish-American family; he claims direct descent from Scottish poet Robert Burns.[1] His parents originally intended for him to be an engineer. 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 go to New York City to buy jeans and bell-bottom pants, which he customized and resold at a local downtown Elmira store, Brown's.

He later 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 to make room for First Arena, home of the Elmira Jackals Hockey team.

Career

After turning to the design of clothing by designing for the rest of his stores in upstate New York, 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:TOM), with support from The Murjani Group, 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 1997.

In 1998, Hilfiger gave singer Aaliyah her endorsement deal, in which he honored her in his Summer 1998 fashion show in Jamaica.

Tommy Hilfiger clothes peaked in popularity during the late 1990s.

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.

Largely due to declining sales, in 2006, Tommy Hilfiger sold his company for $1.6 billion, or $16.80 a share, to Apax Partners, a private investment company.[2][3][4]

In March 2010, Phillips-Van Heusen, owner of Calvin Klein, bought the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation for $3 billion.[5]

Personal life

Hilfiger has five children with his ex-wife Susie: Alexandria, Richard, Elizabeth, Kathleen and LilyJack. His daughter Ally was featured in the MTV reality show Rich Girls and his son, Rich, was signed to hip hop super producer Swizz Beatz' label Full Surface. Rich who goes by the hip-hop stage name Rich Hil was arrested on August 1st, 2010 in West Hollywood for possession of marijuana and intent to sell.[6]

Hilfiger put his Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion on the market in the summer of 2008 for an asking price of $27 million.

He married his second wife, Dee Ocleppo, former wife of Gianni Ocleppo, famous Italian Tennis player of the 1980s, on December 12, 2008. On February 25, 2009, the New York Post reported that Ocleppo was three months pregnant, and Hilfiger would welcome a sixth child later in 2009.[7] On May 4, 2009, Hilfiger and Ocleppo announced they were expecting a boy.[8] Current wife, Dee Ocleppo, gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, Sebastian Thomas Hilfiger.

Criticisms

Hilfiger has been criticized for manufacturing clothes in sweatshop conditions in the United States territory of Saipan in the 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 mistreatment by over 20 large U.S. clothing manufacturers.[9]

Product lines

References

  1. ↑ "It's a kilt Jim, but not as you know it", Scotland.org, April 2004
  2. ↑ Apax Partners' funds complete acquisition of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. Shareholders to receive $16.80 per share
  3. ↑ Tommy Hilfiger Corporation announces European Commission approval for proposed acquisition by funds advised by Apax Partners
  4. ↑ Tommy Hilfiger Corp. sold to private investors
  5. ↑ Calvin Klein owner buys Tommy Hilfiger
  6. ↑ [1]
  7. ↑ Tommy Hilfiger and Wife Expecting a Baby celebrity baby blog, February 25, 2009
  8. ↑ Tommy Hilfiger and Wife Expecting a boy! celebrity baby blog, May 6, 2009
  9. ↑ "Eight more U.S. retailers settle sweatshop suit". Reuters. 28 March 2000. http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/saipan/reuters032800.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 

External links