Tommy Hilfiger

Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger (born in Elmira, New York, on March 24, 1951) is a world-famous fashion designer, and creator of the eponymous "Tommy Hilfiger" and "Tommy" brands. more...

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Biography

He grew up in an Irish Catholic family, the second of nine children. He attended Elmira Free Academy high school. Rather than furthering his education, he started to work in retail at the age of 18. Hilfiger would trek down to New York City to get his hands on jeans and bell-bottom pants which he customized and resold at a local downtown Elmira, New York, store, Brown's. Later he opened his own store named "The People's Place" around the block in downtown Elmira. Although the store was a hot spot for teens with frequent contests and live DJ appearances, there were often more people hanging out than shopping. Over the years, a number of stores closed in downtown Elmira as shopping traffic shifted to the new Arnot Mall in Horseheads, New York. It wasn't long before The People's Place became another casualty. After seven years, The People's Place went bankrupt; when Hilfiger was 25. The site of the original store has since been demolished with a number of nearby stores to make room for the First Arena, home of the Elmira Jackals Hockey team.

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 he 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".

Read more at Wikipedia.org