American Dreamer by Tommy Hilfiger

Author:Tommy Hilfiger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

In the fashion business, four areas are of parallel importance: design, marketing, manufacturing, and execution. As designer, my job was to anticipate what the market needed. Silas, with his background first at South Ocean Knitwear and then at Ralph Lauren Europe, provided strong expertise in cost control of the manufacturing and sourcing. He was the financial strategist, constantly investigating ways to build the company’s profitability. He changed our home domicile from Hong Kong to Barbados to the British Virgin Islands. He knew how to deal with the bankers to make the most of our credit lines. He set up our own Hong Kong buying office and turned it into a major profit center. He established separate subsidiaries and divisions for licensing and operating and manufacturing. He created a European operation. When we wanted to go into the denim business, he spearheaded the purchase of Pepe Jeans in London and used that as the vehicle for the license for Tommy Jeans, which we built and ultimately sold for a significant sum. Silas was a financial engineering genius.

Lawrence Stroll taught us how to think big. He was fearless about making life-changing decisions. He determined when and how to expand into Europe, expand our footprint in American department stores, and expand the entire line of clothes. Lawrence also taught us how to live well. We all lived well, but Lawrence lived well on another level. He ate only the finest food and drank only the best wine. He had the most extraordinary private jet and private yacht, and one of the world’s largest collections of Ferraris. He owned helicopters. His many homes and properties were incredible in scope, design, and expense. He had his own Grand Prix race track! He had amazing taste, and never accepted second-best. When I was a boy dreaming about being rich, I’d never thought about it on that level; I’d never even understood what that level was until I teamed up with Lawrence!

When we were considering expansion into Europe, Lawrence and Silas brought in a European all-star team who had previously worked for him at Polo Ralph Lauren, headed by Fred Gehring. He insisted that we select the very best retail locations, so in London we opened a sumptuous store across from Harvey Nichols, which began the trend of luxury designer shopping on Sloane Street in Knightsbridge. We followed this with a beautiful store on Bond Street. Next, we established high-visibility presences in Munich, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Düsseldorf.

When we began the Tommy Hilfiger expansion in American department stores, we were initially placed in men’s clothing areas, surrounded by competing lines. Lawrence walked in and said, “We need full-blown shops!” When we started dreaming about what those shops should look like, our dreams were never grand enough; Lawrence wanted more beautiful mahogany, thicker columns, better flooring, better lighting. Always more of the best. Because of my history, I was afraid of spending grand amounts of money, but Lawrence would say, “No, no, no, no, no. We need bigger and better.

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