Tommy Hilfiger in an interview: “Fashion shows are entertainment today – no one will watch a boring, old-fashioned show anymore”

Designer Tommy Hilfiger in a GLAMOR interview

Season after season, the New York Fashion Week the start of Fashion Month, in which designers show their collections for the new season in the fashion capitals NYC, London, Milan and Paris.

A name that has been a fixture in the show schedule since the 90s: Tommy Hilfiger. In keeping with the often striking logo, which takes up the colors of the US flag and is probably one of the most recognizable – even outside the fashion bubble – the brand's collections always focus on the feeling of “classic American coolness”.

The Collection for the Spring/Summer season 2025, which the designer presented on September 8th, was no exception. What does this American coolness look like? A preppy aesthetic, defined for 2025 by varsity sweaters with V-necks, navy blazers, trench coats and capri pants. These in turn meet the typical Tommy color code – white, blue, red. This is complemented by maritime design borrowings, such as Breton stripes or modern windbreakers, which have always accompanied the brand as a kind of unavoidable preppy side effect.

On the morning of the fashion show, we met the fashion designer for an interview to talk to him about the current challenges facing the industry – but also to reflect on the past. Because a decade still influences his brand today…

Designer Tommy Hilfiger in a GLAMOR interview

GLAMOUR: What moments come to mind first when you think back to the 90s?

Tommy Hilfiger: Definitely when Snoop Dogg wore one of our shirts on the TV show “Saturday Night Live” in 1994. That was a turning point – suddenly my brand was being worn by hip-hop artists, athletes and skaters, and that made us grow worldwide. That's also when the trend of wearing huge logos started. Before that, no one in fashion used large-scale brand logos, not even the big European fashion houses. After that moment, the trend developed, which also inspired designers like Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel.

At first, it was primarily male stars who wore Tommy Hilfiger's oversized streetwear – until the moment when musician Aaliyah was photographed in her fashion…

The photos of Aaliyah behind the DJ booth with Mark Ronson went viral. And back then, there wasn't even social media! And yet everyone knew these photos – every girl in America wanted to look like Aaliyah. But her outfit wasn't from any women's collection. She was wearing a men's shirt, boxer shorts and one of the first Tommy jeans for women. That was the birth of our “Tommy Girl” line, so to speak, and it boosted our entire business enormously during that time.

It also shows that fashion is more than just clothing: when something like what happened to Aaliyah happens, it can create a whole new perception of women – fashion as a means of self-empowerment?

I think it gave them the opportunity to show themselves in clothes that looked a bit more masculine. Before that, women tended not to wear oversized or baggy clothes. That was the beginning of the trend of women wearing wide pants, often combined with tube tops, tank tops or other figure-hugging tops. This trend was then also picked up by our competitors, who interpreted the look in their own way. This is how the silhouettes changed [der Ready-to-Wear für Frauen] changed.