‘You can be too popular’
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 said about the evolution of his label, and his memoir American Dreamer, at the Miami Book Fair International on Sunday.
In the early 90s, I started doing the 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 hip hop kids. 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.
Then the business goes through a difficult period, because a lot of people just stop wearing it. 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. “I never would have made my clothes affordable and accessible for everybody had I not wanted everybody to wear the clothes!