AMERICAN ALL-STAR
On the eve of his first visit to Australia, Tommy Hilfiger lets us exclusively into his world. wor By Tiffany Bakker. Interior styling by Carolina Irving. Photographed by Oberto Gili.
On the eve of his first visit to Australia, streetwear icon Tommy Hilfiger lets us exclusively into his world.
Aworld away from his quiet home in Connecticut, it is Wednesday afternoon in Milan and Tommy Hilfiger, 68, is still buzzing. Last night, at the city’s grand Società del Giardino club, the iconic American designer launched his third Tommyx-Lewis menswear ‘see now, buy now’ collection with British Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton. The club was built in the 1700s as a place where Milanese men would congregate to play bowls, but would later become a meeting place of emperors, politicians and cardinals. For Hilfiger, a designer who turned his childhood love of classic sportswear into high fashion, the location was certainly fitting. Not that he’s basking in the show’s much-deserved glory.
“I’m always thinking: ‘What’s next?’” a buoyant Hilfiger muses. “I’m pretty sure my team thinks ‘What’s next?’ is part of our family slogan. It drives them a bit crazy.” Hilfiger, who founded the label in 1985, has built a billion-dollar empire out of classic Americana, his preppy red, white and blue looks signifying an aspirational East Coast ideal. Though he sold the business in 2006 and has since moved from Manhattan to a stately, sprawling home in peaceful Greenwich, Connecticut, he remains principal designer and oversees all creative processes and wears the company’s longevity and continuing relevance as a badge of honour.
“I think we have remained true to our classic American-cool DNA while constantly evolving by staying on the pulse of pop culture and collaborating with partners who bring a new lens to each collection,” he says. “This is how we built longevity into our brand: by offering our fans designs that are truly authentic to our brand spirit and
relevant for today.” Recent collaborators include Gigi Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Zendaya, the label’s global women’s ambassador.
Design-wise, Hilfiger gives his protégés one directive: go for it. “I said: ‘Bring me your ideas and we’ll make them happen.’ I put their ideas into my blender and mixed them with the DNA of my brand. And now, fortunately, we’ve got some success going.” He says these megawatt collaborations are hugely satisfying. “It gives them a jumpstart and it’s a win-win: they help me, I help them.”
Of course, these days it seems every brand enlists celebrities to spruik their wares, but when Hilfiger had R&B star Aaliyah model for Tommy Jeans in 1996, followed by a young Britney Spears (even a pre-fame Destiny’s Child performed at a Tommy event in New York in the 90s), it felt revolutionary. “For many years we’ve chosen people who were either just beginning to have star power or weren’t even really known, like before Britney Spears was known, Britney Spears was my Tommy Jeans model; before Beyoncé was known, she was performing at my runway shows; and before Usher was known, he was modelling for me,” says Hilfiger. “Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz were known when I started using them, but Gigi Hadid wasn’t really. Zendaya was, but not as much as she is today. I think a lot of it is luck, but a lot of it is instinct as well.”
Hilfiger also took the collaborations a step further, merging his lifelong love of music with fashion by sponsoring tours by Spears, the Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Jewel and Lenny Kravitz. “I never really looked at it as being separate because I thought fashion and music went together, as well as art and entertainment,” he muses.
It was an unexpected alignment with the hip-hop community in the 90s that sent the Tommy Hilfiger label into the fashion stratosphere. Sales spiked globally when, in 1994, Snoop Dogg sported a Tommy rugby shirt on Saturday Night Live. “I started off with really preppy clothes and it evolved into a sportier look, then when I blended the two together I created what is now looked upon as 1990s streetwear,” recalls the designer. “And I was really the first to come up with streetwear. I had all the hip-hop kids, the rappers, wearing my clothes.”
Since then, of course, hip-hop stars have become powerful brand ambassadors; Kanye West – pre Yeezy – has partnered with Balmain, Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar have both fronted campaigns for American labels, A$AP Rocky has appeared in Dior Homme advertisements and Travis Scott has worked with Alexander Wang and Helmut Lang. But fashion hasn’t always been so inclusive. “I think fashion is really embracing diversity and inclusion, but there’s still a long way to go,” says Hilfiger. “Many people still don’t understand it, but it’s certainly part of my DNA. When I started [my label], I wanted it to be for all people: all ages and all backgrounds. I thought it would be a good idea to include all kinds of people in my marketing, advertising and image. Now, many years later, other people are just waking up to it.”
In the 2000s, overt branding became passé and Hilfiger’s label seemed to suffer from over-distribution, but he didn’t let the bad times get him down. “I was always looking ahead, thinking: ‘Okay, well, if this doesn’t work, let’s figure out something that does.’ It was really a matter of avoiding any negativity and difficulties, and going towards whatever was positive.” In recent years, he has once again become a go-to for young stars, with the likes of Justin Bieber embracing the label. “It feels like it’s gone full circle,” Hilfiger says.
The designer grew up in Elmira, New York, a small town about four hours’ drive from Manhattan. One of nine kids, he was “obsessed, absolutely obsessed” with fashion, music and art. He thought about becoming a musician, but he was “no good at playing music”. A career in art also seemed a bridge too far. “I thought maybe I should go into clothing design because I used to draw pictures of sports stars and I particularly liked drawing their clothes.”
But it was music – particularly the look of musicians playing that music – that really inspired him. “I was obsessed with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix … and I really wanted to dress like they did,” he recalls. But emulating Mick Jagger, Robert Plant and Hendrix proved difficult for local kids. “Oh my God, you couldn’t find those clothes in Elmira,” he says.
So the teenage Hilfiger used to drive to Manhattan where he’d buy jeans from street stalls and repurpose them. “I would sell them out of the trunk of my car in our high-school parking lot.” But the parents and teachers of Elmira were not amused. “My friends and I looked so cool,” recalls Hilfiger, laughing, “that we frightened all our teachers.” University wasn’t high on Hilfiger’s agenda (much to his parents’ dismay), but he had an insatiable drive and an entrepreneur’s spirit. He wanted to start his own clothing business. “You know, I had long hair and bell-bottom jeans in the 1970s and when I opened my first shop, I sold clothes to the kind of people who wanted to be into the hippie, rock’n’roll lifestyle. That was really my start in the business.” Called People’s Place, his first store was in Elmira. While not exactly the East Village, it was where fashion-starved teens of suburban upstate New York congregated. “Oh God, it was so much fun,” he says.
Until it wasn’t. A lack of financial acumen proved his undoing and, by 25, he was bankrupt. “That set me back a bit,” he says. “In hindsight, it was the most difficult but also the most educational period of my career. It was a brutal wake-up call [that made me realise] that creativity and business go hand in hand. The lessons I learned during that period became the business degree I never earned. I really understood that with both the creative and the business side, there has to be a balance.”
“I was always looking ahead, thinking: ‘Okay, well, if this doesn’t work, let’s figure out something that does.’ It was a matter of avoiding any negativity”
Hilfiger knew that if he was serious about getting his own label up and running, he needed to learn about business and permanently base himself in New York City. “It was following the yellow brick road, in a way,” says Hilfiger, “because Manhattan is where it was all happening from a fashion standpoint.” He immersed himself in the city and soon became a regular at Studio 54. “Getting admitted into Studio 54 was the hard part,” he remembers. “If you were one of the chosen ones, walking through the doors of the iconic venue was like leaving the real world and entering a New York City dream.”
He’d found his people. And they were the very stars he’d grown up idolising. “Mick and Bianca Jagger would be there. Bowie would be there.” For a kid from Elmira, this was insane. “I remember the flashing lights on the dance floor were nearly blinding and the music was so loud that even screaming at the top of your lungs was useless – gesturing and dancing were the best ways to communicate,” he says. “We rarely got home before five in the morning.”
It was during this period that Hilfiger met Andy Warhol, who would become a close friend.“He took me to the Factory and introduced me to his whole team,” recalls Hilfiger. “He offered to sell me some of his art at really great prices back when I didn’t have any money.” Ultimately, the two bonded over a love of fashion. “He was also obsessed with people in the fashion world, people in the sports world, people in the celebrity world and people in Hollywood, so we had a lot in common. It was an incredible experience getting to know Andy Warhol.”
So what would Warhol, who died more than 30 years ago, make of today’s Instagram age, where every influencer and their dog (or cat) gets their 15 minutes of fame? “Oh, he would love it,” says Hilfiger, laughing loudly. “He would love it!”
That heady New York scene is something Hilfiger looks upon fondly, but these days he and his wife, Dee Ocleppo, prefer to spend less time in Manhattan. They recently sold their apartment at the famous Plaza hotel, which lies directly across the road from Central Park, and spend as much time as they can at their vast, castle-like house in Greenwich, about 50 kilometres north-east of the city.
Originally known as Chateau Paterno, this incredible home – featured in these pages – was designed by award-winning architect Greville Rickard in 1939 for real-estate magnate Charles Vincent Paterno. Though Hilfiger is a quintessential American designer, the house recalls an English manor, complete with French details. After all those years partying in Manhattan, Hilfiger loves the peace. “I spend most of my time [here] because it’s only one hour from my office in New York. I’d rather be in Connecticut than New York City because it’s so quiet, peaceful and relaxing, so that’s my main base,” says Hilfiger, who also owns a beachside mansion in Miami.
Along with architecture, modern art remains one of Hilfiger’s greatest passions. He owns works by Warhol and other iconic artists of 1980s New York, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. So it’s fitting that this month, when the designer visits Australia for the first time, he will participate in a number of events at the National Gallery of Victoria (in December, the Melbourne gallery will unveil the world’s first combined Haring and Basquiat exhibition, Crossing Lines). He’ll attend a fashion and business in-conversation event and a VIP dinner, both held in partnership with the NGV, celebrate the opening of the new flagship Tommy Hilfiger store at Emporium Melbourne and host a night at ‘ Club Tommy’ along Sydney Harbour for special guests.
Official activities aside, the designer says he’s keen to check out the local architecture, nature and culinary scene. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Australian celebrities, influencers, models and journalists at our fashion shows, and I’ve always liked how they manage to look stylish while channelling a laid-back vibe,” he says. “It seems effortless, and that has always been very cool to me.” Though he’d be forgiven for wanting to take it easy and spend more time in Connecticut with Ocleppo and their children, Hilfiger is buoyant about the future of design, as well as the direction of the industry and his place in it. One thing he’s “really, really excited” by is high fashion’s take up of eco-friendly initiatives. In January, his label announced that the spring/summer ’19 collection – and future ones – would feature sustainable denim. The designer’s most recent collaboration with Hamilton not only includes recycled denim, but also organic cotton and vegan sneakers.
Hilfiger sees fashion’s current risk-takers as a changing of the guard. “I love what Virgil [Abloh] is doing at Off-White: taking it from a streetwear brand to a luxury brand. Kanye is doing all sorts of creative things, not only with the Yeezy brand, but also in areas like architecture and design. And I love what Jeremy Scott is doing at Moschino,” he muses. “There are some disruptors, some really cool people out there, doing fun things, and I like to think I’m part of that disruption.”