A couple posts ago, I defended Mr. Hilfiger. Now, I’m not going back on what that posts says. I don’t think he made those racist claims, this has happened to numerous other designers. I did a speech on Tommy Hilfiger for my speech class last quarter. My original purpose of the speech was to inform people of the downfall of the Hilfiger brand after racist accusations and how the company is coming back. When researching for the project, I learned just how wrong I am about the “Hilfiger” brand. So I’ll provide a couple bullets on what I now think of the brand.
-It shouldn’t be called Tommy Hilfiger. The man barely has anything to do with designing. He doesn’t sketch or provide any ideas past basic styling.
-I’m having a hard time calling the brand classic prep when the whole brand was made as a quick way to literally copy the Ralph Lauren preppy style.
-The ads are GREAT. I love the Hilfigers and I think it’s a wonderful marketing tool. However, you can’t find a lot of (pretty much all of) the clothes, in the ads, in the actual stores. I know that they’re trying to bring people into the specialty stores in New York and stuff, but I’m a poor college student in Georgia… I can’t get to New York too easily, and I’m not even sure I’d want to travel the distance, just for Tommy, if possible.
-That being said, the stuff from Tommy is still of decent quality. I see nothing wrong with picking up a few basic items from Tommy (ex. chinos or a tie). Anything farther than that, I just can’t see spending my money on it.
-I love some of my Tommy gear, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth supporting a brand that I just don’t believe (heavily) anymore.
