Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Story

Thomas Jacob Hilfiger born March 24, 1951 is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. Hilfiger spent the summer of 1969 working in a clothing store on Cape Cod, and afterwards he decided to use his life savings of $150 to open a clothing store in 1971 as People's Place. The first store was located in downtown Elmira in what is now the site of First Arena and had a hair salon, a record shop, and rock concerts in the basement. To stock the store, Hilfiger and a friend drove to New York City to buy clothing such as bell-bottoms, peasant blouses, and leather jackets. Unsatisfied with this, he began sketching his own designs, and would later write that "designing made me happier than anything I'd ever done. I knew from that early work that designing would be my life