(AllHipHop News) Back in 1992, Tommy Hilfiger became the first fashion designer to take his company public and grew to become a company worth $1.9 billion by the end of the decade. During a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Tommy Hilfiger addresses Hip Hop’s influence on his brand’s success and why he is no longer “chasing trends”.
At the end of 1990, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation was valued at over $100 million after starting in 1985. During that decade, Hip Hop artists began to wear the brand heavily and while Hilfiger attributes the genre with helping the growth, but states he is no longer in the business of chasing trends:
Look, it fueled a lot of growth, but it took us away from our roots. We came back to our roots 10 years ago; that’s when our business started to really stabilize and grow again. When people ask me advice, I say stick to who you are. Stick to your guns. There is an image and attitude to most brands and that’s really important. I like to stick to my heritage and not chase trends and at that point we were chasing trends. Chasing trends was easy but it was dangerous. It’s more important to me now to be consistent.
Back in the late 90s, a rumor spread about Tommy Hilfger making disparaging comments about his brand’s popularity amongst the Hispanic, African American and Jewish community on an unaired episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Hilfiger appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 and addressed the rumors.
Check out Tommy Hilfiger clear up the rumors back in 2007 on The Oprah Winfrey Show below: