The famous ad that announced his brand was someone else’s idea, though. Yet, Hilfiger spent years developing his connections, competencies, and confidence. The setup happened within a short timeframe. He approached one expert with whom he had a connection from a prior job, and one meeting led to the next. Hilfiger describes the business experts who helped him set up his company. I was surprised to learn that he almost accepted a lucrative job offer from Calvin Klein. This part of his life gets overlooked in most profiles about him. He never had formal design training, but he had initiative and intuition. Hilfiger has always been more of a curator of fashion than a pure designer. This phase is fascinating and forgettable at the same time. He had a series of ventures each failed for some reason. Hilfiger describes more of his life and career before the Tommy Hilfiger brand. In 2020, his namesake company launched People’s Place as a program to support under-represented groups in fashion. Hilfiger opened the first People’s Place store in 1969. I can only imagine how he felt at the time. He was forthright about its eventual failure, but I was wistful when this part of the book ended. This first venture was important to Hilfiger developing as an entrepreneur and designer. I hadn’t known about it until the past year when I watched a YouTube video that profiled his namesake brand. Hilfiger chronicles his People’s Place venture in detail. He and his friends had overnight success by selling clothes that they brought from NYC. Hilfiger converted his knowledge and retail experience to create People’s Place. The former came of age around the Summer of Love, so he knew the hippie scene. Lauren has written about imagining life as a movie. Ralph Lauren notes something similar in his book.Īs dreamers do, both men have always viewed the world as a show. He also describes fond experiences with summer camp. The adult Hilfiger shows obvious reverence to the store owner from whom he’s learned a lot. Hilfiger’s first job was working at a local store that sold sports equipment and uniforms. They were both interested in sports, although neither was a star athlete. One thing that struck me was the similarity of his and Ralph Lauren’s interests as young men. Still, Hilfiger’s recollection shows that he’s tried to be a good son and brother. He had a strained relationship with his father and had scholastic issues because of dyslexia. His working-class upbringing left him wanting, or should I say, dreaming. He grew up in Elmira, New York, four hours and a world away from The City of Cities. I like the attention that he gives to his early life as the second of nine kids. So, on a whim, I decided to read about the life of Tommy Hilfiger. I’ve noticed Hilfiger, both the company and the man, in my life here and there. I’ve never been a fan of the brand that bears his name, but it’s become relevant again over the past several years. But I noticed Tommy Hilfiger’s autobiography that he co-wrote with Peter Knobler. I wasn’t intending to borrow a book, let alone a biography. It has a familiar red, white, and blue motif.Ī few weeks ago, I was browsing the fashion section of my local library. The cover of American Dreamer features a photo of present-day Tommy Hilfiger. It also details the experiences that had helped the man create the company. The book details the rise, fall, and (re)rise of his namesake company. This autobiography chronicles the life of Tommy Hilfiger, an American icon of fashion.
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