Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger (/hɪlˈfɪɡər/ hil-FIG-ər; born March 24, 1951)[1] is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.[2]
This article is about the fashion designer. For his company, see Tommy Hilfiger (company).
Tommy Hilfiger
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Jayne Klopenstein(m. 1978; div. 1979)
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Susie Cirona(m. 1980; div. 2000)
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After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upstate New York in the 1970s, he began designing preppy clothing for his own eponymous menswear line in the 1980s. The company later expanded into women's clothing and various luxury items such as perfumes and went public in 1992.
Hilfiger's collections are often influenced by the fashion of music subcultures and marketed in connection with the music industry,[3][4] with celebrities such as American R&B artist Aaliyah in the 1990s.[5] In 2005, contestants in the CBS reality show The Cut competed for a design job with Hilfiger in a similar fashion to The Apprentice.[6] In 2006, Hilfiger sold his company for $1.6 billion to Apax Partners,[7] who next sold it in 2010 to Phillips-Van Heusen for $3 billion.[8] He remains the company's principal designer, leading the design teams and overseeing the entire creative process.[9] In 2012, Hilfiger was awarded the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.[10]
The following is a selected list of awards and recognitions for Tommy Hilfiger:
Criticisms[edit]
Hilfiger has been criticized for having manufactured clothes in sweatshop conditions in the United States territory of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.[74] As a U.S. Commonwealth, clothes made there can be labeled "Made in the USA", but federal labor laws, including the minimum wage, do not apply. In March 2000, the company, along with other defendants, settled a class action suit brought by Saipanese garment workers, which had alleged mistreatment by over 20 large U.S. clothing manufacturers.
Personal life[edit]
Hilfiger was born on March 24, 1951, in Elmira, New York,[80] the second of nine children.[11] Both of his parents were practicing Catholics.[81][82] His father Richard was a watchmaker of German-Swiss descent,[11] and his mother Virginia (née Gerrity)[83] was a nurse of Irish descent.[15] Hilfiger also claims direct descent from Gilbert Burns, brother of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.[84] His paternal family originated from Safenwil, Canton of Aargau, Switzerland with the original spelling of his family name being Hilfiker and being americanized after emigration by his ancestors.[85][86]
Hilfiger has described his upbringing as very happy. He credits his parents with instilling a good work ethic and compassion for others.[87] He has dyslexia.[88] Hilfiger had an early interest in sports, fashion, and the music industry,[89] a trend that ran in his family.[38] One of his brothers, Andy Hilfiger, went on to work as a musician and designer, while Hilfiger's other brother, Billy Hilfiger,[83] would join King Flux as a guitarist.[90]
In 1976, Hilfiger met Susan Cirona, an employee at the People's Place in Ithaca; they married in 1980. Together they had four children: one son and three daughters.[67][91] In 2003 Hilfiger's daughter Ally was part of the MTV reality series Rich Girls. His son, Richard ("Ricky Hil"), is a musician. The Hilfigers divorced in 2000.
On December 12, 2008, he married Dee Ocleppo;[92] the couple had a son in 2009.[67]