Tommy Hilfiger says you can be too popular
I don’t want to wear it anymore, because I’ve seen it everywhere.
miami — Sometimes, there is such a thing as being too popular, Tommy Hilfiger says, explaining that after his label’s crazy romp in the 1990s, he had to reinvent the brand. Decked out in red trousers and a white shirt with blue stripes, and white sneakers — poster boy for his brand’s red, white and blue staples — the 65-year-old designer chatted with AFP about the evolution of his label, and his memoir “American Dreamer,” at the Miami Book Fair International. Excerpts: “I n the early 90s, I started doing this athletic type of clothing, with big numbers, big logos, I went very bold with the logos. And the street kids started wearing it, and then the hip hop kids started wearing it. And then Snoop Dogg, Puff Daddy and Jay Z, all them started wearing my clothes and it spread like crazy. The business became very big in the 90s, too big.
When everybody is wearing the same thing, the first adopters usually say “I don’t want to wear it anymore, because I’ve seen it everywhere.” It becomes too big. This is what happened with Abercrombie recently. Then the business goes through a difficult period, because a lot of people just stop wearing it. This happened to the Gap even. So we had to reinvent and the business took off again. It’s a lie, it’s false, it was made to hurt my business and me. Originally, they said it was on the Oprah show, where I reportedly said that if I had known that black people would have worn my clothes, I wouldn’t have been a designer. But then they said the same about Latinos, gay people, Jewish people and even Indian people. So this rumor was very hurtful to me. The business continued to be strong, we didn’t see the numbers be affected, but it was hurtful.
I never would have made my clothes affordable and accessible for everybody had I not wanted everybody to wear the clothes!
When I was a teenager, I didn’t really know what to do with my life. I liked rock music, I liked the clothes they were wearing and I opened a small shop with $150 I earned from working at a gas station. I started with 20 pairs of jeans in a small shop. And then I started expanding on college campuses with very cool clothes.
I opened it in 1969, when the fashion-music revolution was taking place. It was the summer of Woodstock, Jimmy Hendrix and The Who, and all of these incredible musicians that were wearing the most amazing clothes: low bottoms, headbands, beads, the hippie type fashion. It was really a movement with the young people and I wanted to be part of that movement. I evolved away from this hippie style in the early 80s, because I wanted to make clothes that were clothes that everyone could wear. And I knew that if I redesigned American classics, and made classics new again, it would be a great business and at the same time it would be a lot of fun to do. So I took this preppy look I grew up with... button-down shirts and chino pants, sort of sporty, casual. So I redesigned everything. I wanted to make everything new, unique, fresh and fun. Calvin Klein is very minimalist. His number one colour is black.” — AFP