Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger grew up in an Irish Catholic family, the second of nine children. Rather than furthering his education, he started to work in retail at the age of 18.

He opened a store named "The People's Place" in upstate New York. Hilfiger would trek down to New York City to get his hands on jeans and bell-bottom pants that weren't available in his hometown, and sold them in his store. People didn't respond as well as he hoped, and The People's Place went bankrupt after 7 years; when Hilfiger was 25.

After turning to the design aspect of clothing by designing for the rest of his stores in upstate New York (a total of 10), Hilfiger moved to New York City with his now estranged wife, Susie. Although Tommy was offered design assistant positions with designers Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis -- and was broke -- he turned them both down with greater plans in mind.

In 1984, he founded the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation (NYSE:THB) - which went public in 1992 - introducing his signature menswear collection. By 2004 the company had 5,400 employees and revenues in excess of $1.8 billion.

Hilfiger was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1995. In August 2005 Hilfiger announced he was selling his company and before the year ended, it was purchased by Apax Partners for $1.6 billion, or $16.80 a share, all in cash.

In 2005, a CBS TV reality show called The Cut tracked the progress of sixteen contestants as they competed for a design job with Hilfiger in similar fashion to Donald Trump's The Apprentice. In the end Hilfiger chose Chris Cortez.

In May 2006, Hilfiger had a close encounter with Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose at the Plumm in New York City. Hilfiger reportedly took a couple of swings at Axl Rose for moving his girlfriend's drink, before being carried away kicking and screaming by his own security guards. Club owner Noel Ashman stated "Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger".

Later that night Rose dedicated the song "You're Crazy" to "My good friend Tommy Hilfiger".
Currently dating Dee Ocleppo, Hilfiger has four children. His daughter Ally Hilfiger was featured in the MTV reality show Rich Girls. Hilfiger has a house in Greenwich, Connecticut; a Manhattan apartment; a Vermont ski house; an island getaway on Mustique in the Caribbean; and summer houses in East Hampton, New York and Nantucket, Massachusetts.
 
Criticisms
Hilfiger has been criticised for manufacturing clothes in sweatshop conditions in the United States territory of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. 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 Saipan garment workers which had alleged that their working conditions amounted to indentured servitude.

Hilfiger has been falsely labeled as a racist, based on rumors that he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show, and said, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them."These rumours have since been proven false, with a statement from Oprah Winfrey that she "has never even met Tommy Hilfiger".

Product lines
 
True Star
True Star is a fragrance created by Tommy Hilfiger along with spokesperson Beyoncé Knowles.

Red Label
This is a line of denim-themed products including jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts.

H by Tommy Hilfiger
An upscale line that is sold primarily in freestanding boutiques devoted exclusively to this line. Shirts from this line begin at $95.

Tommy Hilfiger
This is the company's line of clothes sold in department stores and flagship Tommy Hilfiger stores.

Tommy Sport
This line, no longer in production, came out in the 1990s and capitalized on Hilfiger's popularity in urban areas.

Tommy Sailing

This line is due to be released in January or February of 2007