Forty Years On, Tommy Hilfiger Still Brings The Rock ‘N Roll

Tommy Hilfiger is targeting global growth under PVH (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)

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Sitting on the enormous stage at the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York this morning, NRF CEO Matt Shay admitted to being star struck by his interviewee, Tommy Hilfiger.

Hilfiger, honored as this year’s retail visionary the night before, has that kind of affect, even as his brand prepares to celebrate 40 years in business in 2025. Like the missing member of the Rolling Stones, he exudes the rock n roll charisma that is, frankly, largely missing from corporate retail America.

It’s no coincidence that this is exactly the way he sees the brand itself, a fusion initially between fashion and music and latterly enmeshed in wider celebrity culture, from actors to athletes.

Hilfiger’s brand is now under the umbrella of PVH since a $3 billion deal in 2010, which also owns Calvin Klein, and Hilfiger said there will be no let up in building towards their joint ambitions to become global lifestyle brands.

“PVH CEO Stefan Larsson has a vision for the entire company which we are all following and its working. Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are very different but we are about the same size and continuing on our journey to grow into global lifestyle brands. With a north star [vision] we’re getting to where we want to go.”

Hilfiger described it as a “distant dream to build a global brand” when he first started out, initially selling jeans from his own store and eventually building the company into a chain called People’s Place

“Forty years years ago when I started the Tommy Hilfiger brand, the idea was that we would compete with but not look like the competition. The goal was to keep relevant and follow the zeitgeist, which we did by connecting with musicians, and then celebrities,” he said.

Hilfiger Targets Global Growth

Hilfiger said that it was his philosophy that if the fashion brand dressed the stars then the fans would come to them.

“We wanted to build a community to cater to people interested in music and fashion. That was my lane, every business needs to have its focus. We also wanted to be inclusive and diverse, it wasn’t planned that way but we wanted to embrace everyone who was interested in that lifestyle.”

Tommy Hilfiger stressed that he wanted people to be able to buy the runway immediately. (Photo by … [+] Randy Brooke/Getty Images for Tommy Hilfiger)

Getty Images for Tommy Hilfiger

“It became about ‘fashiontainment’. Then we did movies with Hollywood stars and then sports stars and then started to do collaborations. Codesign with these celebrities has become a phenomenon which I never expected to be as big as it is,” he added. “Most stars want to have a brand.”

But Hilfiger is adamant that in order to move the brand forward, the company needs to keep embracing change and technology development.

Hilfiger And Embracing Tech

“We wanted people to be able to click and buy what they saw on the runway, rather than wait for months,” he said. “We were always looking to disrupt, which is why we have embraced technology in a big way. The business shifts all the time and I like to be ahead of the curve every time. It’s a new beginning but without abandoning the past but we want to modernize and evolve. We always need to be asking the question, ‘what’s next?’”

Hilfiger said that he likes to figure out what’s next before the consumer knows, which he said prepares the brand for more growth.

“People were saying people would never buy fashion on the internet, and look at how that went. I think AI will change everything and will propel business ahead but you have to stay abreast of what’s going on in the tech would, because it will be the horse that pulls the wagon.”

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