How much is Tommy Hilfiger worth?
| Net Worth: | $300 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Fashion Designer |
| Date of Birth: | March 24, 1951 (age 71) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
About Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger, or Thomas Jacob Hilfiger is a world-renowned fashion designer from America. Born in New York on 24 March, 1951, he is best known for setting up the fashion company Tommy Hilfiger with headquarters in New York City. He found the company in the year 1985 and remains to be the chief designer of the brand till date.
Tommy belongs to a Catholic household wherein his mother was a nurse and his father was a watchmaker. He developed an interest in music, sports and fashion at a young age. According to him, his mother Virginia and father Richard are the ones who taught him the significance of hard work and compassion in every phase of life.
After getting his high school diploma at the Elmira Free Academy and attending the Greater Southern Tier BOCES Bush Campus for a brief period, Hilfiger began by working in a Cape Cod clothing store. He would purchase and customize jeans to resell them locally, while later opening his own store named People’s Place in New York at the age of 18. Starting the store in 1968, Tommy then thought of expanding the same into ten different branches which made the store a hit. However, the business witnessed bankruptcy in 1977 and the stores were shut down.
Two years later, Tommy Hilfiger shifted to New York City to pursue a career as a fashion designer. Soon, he met an Indian textile businessman, Mohan Murjani who was looking forward to launching a new men’s clothing range. This was a major turning point in Tommy’s life and he crafted his first signature clothing collection with the help of Mujani in 1985. The collection featured modern twists to button-down shirts, chinos, and various other classic designs. The out-of-the-box work made Tommy Hilfiger’s clothing range popular and successful very soon.
In the year 1989, Hilfiger quit Murjani International to start his very own fashion company with the title Tommy Hilfiger.
When Tommy Hilfiger Corporation was launched in 1989, it was backed by some incredible marketing campaigns, also having a large billboard displayed in Times Square.
The same year, a large share of the brand was acquired by investors Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll who together turned the company into a global phenomenon within a span of 20 years.
The signature menswear line of Hilfiger came out in 1992, and the company advanced to making women’s clothing in 1996. Further, the company launched a Beverly Hills store in 1997, while opening another store in London the very next year.
More than 1400 stores round the world were opened, followed by the launch of a bed and bath line in 1998. Women’s intimate apparel were also introduced by the brand in 2001. All these developments made Tommy Hilfiger revenues cross $1.9 billion in the 2000s.
In the year 2003, Hilfiger and company executive Fred Gehring together decided to invest in the brand’s overseas audience by bringing classic American cool back and designing clothes for customers outside New York. 2006 marked the sale of Tommy Hilfiger Inc. to Apax Partners for an amount of $1.6 billion, but Apax further sold the company to Phillips-Van Heusen for $3 billion in 2010. Tommy Hilfiger also launched a digital sales showroom at the company’s New York City headquarters in January 2015.
Tommy also sponsors several music events, including Lenny Kravitz‘s Freedom tour and If It Makes You Happy tour by Sheryl Crow. He has also hosted The Cut, a CBS reality series on which 16 amazing designers performed and competed to win a job with Hilfiger. He has also appeared in Zoolander and Zoolander 2, while also publishing 7 books, including All-American and American Dreamer: My Life in Fashion & Business.
Apart from the fashion industry, Hilfiger also invests in real estate for some extra bucks. In 2008, he bought a a penthouse in Plaza Hotel, New York City, for an estimated $25.5 million and sold it for an estimated $33.25 million 11 years later. He also purchased a mansion in Miami for an estimated $17.25 million in 2013, putting it in the market for $27.5 million in 2017 before bringing the prices down to $23.5 million in February next year. Tommy also sold his Palm Beach mansion for an estimated $35 million which he initially purchased for $34 million.
Hilfiger also does some incredible charitable works and established The Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation in 1995. His organization extended help to charities working for vulnerable American youth, while also supporting ‘War Child’, ‘Save the Children’, ‘World Wildlife Fund’, and various other organizations. Tommy was a sponsor of LIFEbeat and has also helped ‘LK, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation’ as well as ‘Autism Speaks’, while also being a member of the board of directors of ‘The Fresh Air Fund’.
He has been crafting limited-edition handbags to help ‘Breast Health International’, while donating a major part of the earnings to the ‘Fund for Living’ program of the organization. He has donated millions of dollars to eradicate poverty and hunger, which also advanced to him sponsoring the 2014 ‘Golden Door Film Festival’.
Tommy Hilfiger believes that surrounding himself with people who are hard working and passionate helped him climb the ladder of success. The second most important thing that the bankruptcy of People’s Place taught him was to know your company’s numbers inside and out. He then started paying attention to the bottom line since a very early age. Tommy’s idea behind achieving success is that if you have a great business idea in mind, you must go for it and make it happen for real.
Summing-Up
Tommy Hilfiger has not only earned a big name, but also global fame. The American multinational company established by him designs and manufactures clothing for men, women and children, while also making accessories, footwear, fragrances and home furnishing items. ‘The Council of Fashion Designers of America’ awarded Tommy Hilfiger with the title of Menswear Designer of the Year in 1995. He has won a whole bunch of awards not only for his work but also for the charitable works he is indulged in. The designer has earned an estimated net worth of $300 million, as of 2023.
