How do you reinvigorate heritage? From contemporary designers employed to “revive” dormant labels to stalwart manufacturers attempting to persuade new generations that they’re nonetheless related, this query is high of thoughts for anybody main a model born earlier than the yr 2000. At Tommy Hilfiger, the dialog is much less about convincing Gen-Z that it’s cool—lengthy affiliation with hip-hop’s vanguard does the trick—and extra about delivering a product that captures that cool essence.
The higher query, then: How does one repackage heritage? Can manufacturers translate on-line nostalgia for his or her bygone visuals, merchandise, and vibes, into gross sales?
“The temporary to the design staff is to start out with American classics and discover the filter to make them related for immediately’s buyer,” mentioned Lee Holman, Tommy Hilfiger’s Chief Design Officer at a preview. The factor is, the notion of American “classics” has been revisited a lot that it’s misplaced most of its that means. Right here’s the place the filter comes into play. For fall, the Tommy design staff seemed on the nice open air, aka the woodsy parts of New England which have lengthy knowledgeable the spirit of prep that made Tommy Hilfiger so enchanting again within the ’90s. However extra so than simply exterior, Holman defined, it’s the thought of “American recreation” that was interesting. Metropolis dwellers escaping to the Catskill Mountains, Montauk, or New England is a New York custom—prosperous and largely white, it must be mentioned—and it paints an enthralling and stylized picture that merely doesn’t exit of favor. Now that’s an American traditional.
To bridge this into immediately, the Tommy staff mixed this idyllic picture with a grounding idea: What’s the buyer doing? Escaping the town, positive, however these garments ought to serve a year-round objective reasonably than simply deal with a weekend getaway, so Holman tasked his designers with reinterpreting some quintessential Tommyisms—a pair of Chinos, a shearling coat, a varsity jacket, a cricket sweater, an Oxford shirt—in immediately’s proportions. The outcomes are convincing and confidently elevated, if typically over-branded. Elongated and broad wool-twill tailoring in navy and camel seemed preppy but up to date, whereas a pair of burly his-and-hers leather-based shearling jackets captured the woodsy spirit the staff was after. A snazzy shade of cyan brightened the palette and provided a break from the signature Tommy crimson, white, and blue, and a tartan shirt bonded to a knit backing introduced trendy consolation into an age-old important. It’s a tall order to make classics like these identifiable, however that is an trustworthy effort from the Hilfiger staff.
Oftentimes, trend heritage is much less in regards to the garments and extra about how they’re worn. Hip-hop turns 50 this yr, and one can see its affect each on the Tommy codes and trend itself. It might be attention-grabbing to see Tommy Hilfiger totally go there in celebration and acknowledgement.
Most promising right here was the reissuing of a signature Tommy tartan from the ’90s. It was rescaled, recolored, and reinvented within the form of fuzzy knits, wooly tailoring, and smooth puffer jackets. The driving drive behind this story was a fall 1994 marketing campaign picture Holman and co. discovered within the firm archives. It photos three very good-looking fashions with very ’90s haircuts posing by a muddied crimson truck. They’re sporting the tartan in query paired with chinos, traditional wash denims, and brass-buttoned tailoring. There’s a way of sartorial playfulness and discovery in that outdated advert that the label ought to dig into. It’s enjoyable, recognizable, and plausible, all of the issues the Tommy Hilfiger heritage ought to stand for because it seems to the longer term.
