Who Owns Tommy Hilfiger?

Tommy Hilfiger was founded in 1985 by Thomas Jacob Hilfiger, a fashion designer from Elmira, New York. Hilfiger had been designing and selling clothing since the 1970s, operating a small chain of stores called People's Place in upstate New York. After the stores went bankrupt in 1977, Hilfiger moved to New York City to pursue a career in fashion design.

The Tommy Hilfiger brand launched in 1985 with backing from Mohan Murjani, an Indian businessman who had previously helped launch the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans brand. The brand's debut was accompanied by a bold advertising campaign that placed Hilfiger's name alongside those of established American designers Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis, and Calvin Klein, declaring him the next great American designer. The campaign was considered audacious given that Hilfiger was relatively unknown at the time, but it generated enormous attention and helped establish the brand's positioning.

The brand's aesthetic was rooted in classic American preppy style, drawing inspiration from Ivy League college fashion, sailing culture, and East Coast heritage. The distinctive red, white, and blue flag logo became one of the most recognized brand marks in fashion. Tommy Hilfiger's clothing was characterized by clean lines, bold color blocking, and prominent logo placement.

Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, Tommy Hilfiger became a cultural phenomenon. The brand was embraced by hip-hop artists and urban youth culture in the early 1990s, a development that Hilfiger actively encouraged by gifting clothing to rappers and musicians. The association with hip-hop culture gave the brand enormous street credibility and drove sales among younger consumers. Tommy Hilfiger became one of the first luxury-adjacent fashion brands to successfully bridge the gap between preppy heritage and urban street culture.

The brand went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1992, raising capital for further expansion. Tommy Hilfiger expanded aggressively through the 1990s, adding women's clothing, accessories, footwear, fragrances, and home goods. The brand's revenue grew from approximately $25 million in 1989 to over $1.8 billion by the late 1990s.

However, the brand faced challenges in the early 2000s as its ubiquitous logo-heavy aesthetic fell out of fashion and the brand became overexposed. Sales declined, and Tommy Hilfiger struggled to maintain its premium positioning. The company was taken private by Apax Partners in 2006 for approximately $1.6 billion.

In 2010, PVH Corporation (then known as Phillips-Van Heusen) acquired Tommy Hilfiger for approximately $3 billion, one of the largest fashion acquisitions of its time. PVH also owned Calvin Klein, creating a portfolio of two major American fashion brands. Under PVH's ownership, Tommy Hilfiger has been successfully repositioned as a global premium lifestyle brand, with particularly strong growth in Europe and Asia.