Sanam Peshiman experiments with her writing style for a student project by writing a hypothetical Obituary in the style of a broadsheet for fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger American Fashion Designer who created multi-billion dollar empire based around urban casual wear
Tommy Hilfiger, who has been murdered aged 56, has sent the fashion world into a somber recollection of the man that impacted American casual wear in the nineties. Born with an entrepreneurial streak in 1951 in a small town in upstate New York, Thomas Jacob Hilfiger was part of a large, traditional American family. His life was self-proclaimed “classic Americana” raised in a house with eight siblings by a watchmaker Father and nurse Mother. He performed poorly at school, deemed dyslexic and disinterested in academia, his passions were sport, music and clothes. It was this passion in clothing and image that set him into becoming a fashion mogul at the helm of a multi billion dollar brand.
At the age of 18, Hilfiger visited nearby college town of Ithacaand purchased bell-bottom jeans which he brought back to small-town Elmira and sold to friends for a profit. Putting together their life savings of $150, Hilfiger and two friends formed a business and opened a shop called ‘People’s Place’, which burned incense, played loud rock music and sold candles and bell bottoms. The first of its kind in the sleepy town, business boomed leading to the opening of ten more specialty stores across upstate New York. Disenchanted with the merchandise they were selling, Hilfiger began thinking about selling his own designs and began sketching his own ideas. Unfortunately, the stores went bankrupt when Hilfiger was 25, leaving him humbled and with the germ of a new idea in his mind. By 1979, he had sold his shares and moved with his wife Susan Cirona to Manhattan to pursue design full time. After freelancing for a short period, by 1985 the birth of his first child brought home offers of steady designing jobs with Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis.
Rejecting both, Hilfiger instead launched his own company backed by Indian entrepreneur Mohan Murjani. Learning from his mistakes with earlier ventures, Hilfiger decided to take a full circle from his trendy clothes of the seventies, and returned to his preppy New England roots. With a clear plan of building a brand of clothing around his own attitude and lifestyle, Tommy Hilfiger was born. Under Murjani's management, the Tommy Hilfiger menswear collection grossed $5 million in the first year and $10 million in the second. In 1988, Hilfiger bought out Murjani and joined Silas Chou, a Hong Kong clothing manufacturer. By that time, the company was bringing in around $25 million a year. 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. By 1999 the company was grossing more than half a billion dollars and was the highest-valued clothing stock on the exchange. The epicenter of this commercial success was promoted by the diverse customer base that was attracted to Hilfiger’s take on casual wear. He combined Ivy League preppy student staples with sporty Americana classics and urban hip-hop influenced styles.
The crux of Hilfiger’s look that raged in the nineties was the creation of the brand and logo. With his keen marketing flair Hilfiger managed to launch a brand that outshone itself by becoming the hottest label to flaunt. His awareness of his consumer, allowed him much of his commercial success. Though slammed by critics as not really designing his clothes, Hilfiger managed to put together a look and lifestyle that millions of people were consumed by. He also went on to sponsor concert tours by The Rolling Stones, Britney Spears and Jewel. Hilfiger presented his own version of Americana which, coupled with his looser sportswear aesthetic, found a surprising new audience in the hip-hop scene of the early ‘90s. The point where America sat up and noticed his arrival coincided with rapper Snoop Doggy Dog wearing an oversized Hilfiger sports jersey for his appearance on Saturday Night Live. Hilfiger, a dedicated music fan himself, welcomed this re-interpretation of his work, but rumors that he was less than enamored by his new audience led him to make a response, lending his support to the Anti-Defamation League and the Washington DC Martin Luther King Junior National Memorial Project Foundation.
By 1995, Hilfiger was named the CFDA’s Menswear Designer of the year. By the turn of the 21st century, Hilfiger was a name on everyone’s lips, to the extent that fashion critics felt he was overexposed. As the era of the brand and logo fell to be replaced by a less blatant promotion, Hilfiger had to regroup. He launched a higher-priced, more up market addition to his global brand with ‘H’ a luxurious line of tailored separates. The brand now encompassed a range of lines and accessories from denim, home ware, children’s lines, eyewear to the ever popular fragrance ‘Tommy’ which symbolized freedom of spirit for teenagers growing up in the nineties. Recently, an exclusive deal with New York department store Macy’s pushed Hilfiger’s expansion ideas even further.
He was murdered on 27th October 2007, with rumors of defamation turning a full circle from when they were first circulated on the internet. An unidentified young African-American shot Hilfiger in point blank range which investigations dub as “one of the most unfortunate hate crimes since the turn of the century.” He leaves behind his wife Susie Cirona and four children. The legacy of his brand, which is often viewed as epitomizing the American Dream, lives on in wardrobes, minds and hits of the refreshing, sharp fruity fragrance of ‘Tommy’.
Sanam Peshiman
Tommy Hilfiger, fashion designer, born 24 March 1951; died October 27th 2007
