Back in fashion!
TOMMY HILFIGER
ART DIRECTOR / LOGO DESIGNER
I have helped to launch many fashion brands, and sometimes reinventing core products of a well-known brand. Tommy Hilfiger was different and meteoric. The thing about Tommy is he is personally always redefining his goals, his audience, his message.
When Tommy first launched he was constantly being compared to Ralph Lauren, his styles mimicked his in many ways. Tommy Hilfiger was a nobody but our first ad campaign positioned him against the ‘greats’ in the fashion industry. There he was, stacked up against Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and Calvin Klein. Tommy was totally embarrassed by the idea and didn’t want the campaign to run. But run it did – on a giant billboard near Times Square. And, of course, it worked.
In the early 90’s, black culture came calling and Tommy 'Higgyfiggy' became something else. Tommy Hilfiger was appropriated but the billions of dollars in sales has allowed him to endure, and today he is back in the limelight.
Tommy Hilfiger said recently to BILLBOARD MAGAZINE, “Fashion comes in cycles, and the cycle is upon [the Tommy brand] because people who were born in the ’90s, they never had the opportunity to see people wearing Tommy logo merchandise on the streets… They think it’s cool.”