Meet the Hilfigers
Tommy Hilfiger is back. And he brought family.
“This new ad campaign...takes our visual identity in a fresh new direction while respecting our brand aesthetic,” Tommy tells Women’s Wear Daily. “This is the first campaign to truly capture the brand’s 25 year heritage of twisted, pretty American sportswear.”
And twisted and pretty it is...the family too. Bloody Mary-loving mummy, daddy, a parade of kids, including a son kicked out of boarding school, a Portuguese exchange student who never left, a mute daughter and two floppy-eared basset hounds gallivant in their Jeep Grand Wagoneer for what’s been dubbed “The Ultimate Tailgate.”
The fall campaign, photographed by Craig McDean and styled by Karl Templer, exemplifies a Royal Tenenbaums touch of quirkiness and humor. And it should. I have always thought Tommy to be the preppy cousin that never took himself too seriously. Templer touts depth, daring and imagination in his arrangements—convincing each and every one of us that Tommy Hilfiger truly is for daddy as much as it is for Bunny.
"Noah Hilfiger is easy on the eyes. Hard on cars. Moving violations everywhere—from Boston to Baltimore—but still not a scratch on him."
And the Hilfigers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The fashionable (and fictitious) family will appear in future installments and are profiled in detail on the “Meet the Hilfigers” section of Tommy.com. Though old-money, they have embraced new media. Noah’s indie rock bands will be popping up on Pandora while Mummy and Daddy surf Facebook and Twitter to keep tabs on their boarding school delinquent son. Other social media features include Chloe’s closet, Morgan’s [one of the basset hounds] Must-Haves and Bernard’s Books. Now this is family.
left a comment on 8/4/2010 at 6:54 AM:
GREAT CAMPAIGN!!!From this moment i love Tommy Hilfiger…
left a comment on 7/28/2010 at 6:56 PM:
I can’t find the “Meet the Hilfigers” section on tommy.com
left a comment on 7/28/2010 at 4:52 AM:
Nice discussion over here. I love the direction Tommy is going but I’m not to sure about the ‘social media’ part of the campaign. It feels a little fake to me. On a non-preppy note I’d also love to see Tommy bring lines like H and Sport back. Now they’re just dipping into the heritage trend instead of being ahead of the curve.
left a comment on 7/26/2010 at 9:58 PM:
It is a nice campaign, I will give it that, one that has been long overdue. I Love the khakis on pic number six and what looks to be a deep cuff. I prefer the quality that rl offers and do believe that he and a couple others like rougues gallery, band of outsiders, gitman bros and save kahki do a better job and think that if th is to make a good comeback he should limit some of his supply and get it out of macys.
left a comment on 7/21/2010 at 7:44 PM:
Quirky, moneyed family? Not by a longshot. This is how it’s done: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/garden/22hudson.html
left a comment on 7/20/2010 at 2:25 PM:
@RMA—My living room loosely resembles this aesthetic.
left a comment on 7/19/2010 at 3:37 PM:
Yay! TH loses the logoriffic styling which has made me shy away from wearing it in years past. I don’t see much here that’s likely to look dated later on, the way the giant polo ponies and patches, numbers, etc. on the current Rugby stuff are likely to appear within a few seasons.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 11:01 PM:
I would at the very least try on every women’s piece in this campaign, save for the thigh-high boots, and some of the men’s, too. This is just about everything I love about classic style in one great setting.
As for those who are complaining about TH ripping anyone off, I think that’s a bit much. To beat a dead horse to a nice bloody pulp, Americana/classic/ivy/trad/preppy is an incredibly rich style tradition that many designers draw from; if you can’t handle someone making so much as a polo shirt sans that polo player, then I hope for your sake you never so much as look at a copy of Take Ivy.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 8:10 PM:
What would this style look like as a living room?
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 4:35 PM:
““Is anyone else appreciating the fact that such a global brand is not plastering their logo/name on every single piece in the collection? “” I am Fred!!! I think this are very good news. I can’t wait to see more of this.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 2:33 PM:
Looks like an outlet mall ralphed on the Royal Tenenbaums.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 10:42 AM:
F.E. Castleberry- EXACTLY…as ive walked through macys and seen the numerous, horrible logo creations by TH, i’m SOOOOOO thankful they lost that branding. And just to mention RL, I hate the big pony idea, and crazy enough im wearing a big pony item, but its from the Wimbeldon collection. It was a gift from a friend haha.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 10:28 AM:
@Kate—Let us also keep in mind that Ralph Lauren used to work for Brooks Brothers (who have been around since 1818). Would you say the same about Ralph Lauren not having original thought? Probably not. Ralph put his own spin on that world…Tommy is doing the same.
Is anyone else appreciating the fact that such a global brand is not plastering their logo/name on every single piece in the collection? Even Ralph Lauren could pick up on THAT cue.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 10:21 AM:
Tommy Hilfiger is not preppy. He copies his style from Ralph Lauren because he used to work for Ralph. While these clothes are very pretty, fashionable, blah blah blah, they have no original thought.
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 10:02 AM:
After reading all the comments I’d like to ask the question “aren’t we all here for the love of the classics?”...in reference to all the “nothing new” comments. RL was founded on attaining that lifestyle through fashion, not by inventing the Polo. I remember when Tommy was hot and just as RL in the 90’s it was embraced by the urban youth…which I believe tied into the “losing its way”. Someone mentioned TH being baggy, and that’s how people around me wore it to begin with. Tommy also has collaborations with New Era hat brand…which sounds like a lack of brand identity, fitted caps aren’t classic or prep by any means in my opinion. The pictures that are posted of the Fall campaign are the ounce of hope that I needed for the brand. I still own some older TH things that I look at ever so often and think “what happened TH?”. Let the past be the past and let’s give the fall collection a fair chance…let’s see how this unfolds
left a comment on 7/16/2010 at 4:12 AM:
Nice. I like the ‘I am not taking myself too serious’-attitude. Of course TH did not invent the wheel from scratch but who cares? It is nice to see him on track again.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 11:54 PM:
@Laguna Beach Trad—Thanks for sharing that memory about your family’s house-shopping experience. Fun little fact.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 11:38 PM:
Pretty sure that’s the most bad ass jeep ever made.
www.MensStyle101.blogspot.com
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 11:20 PM:
This is a really good look. Well done. It definitely reminds me of Wes Anderson.
BTW, for what it’s worth, my family almost bought T. Hilfiger’s house in Greenwich in the late ‘80s. Nice spread. The neighbours (at the time) had excellent things to say about him.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 5:13 PM:
Gag me with a spoon…..
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 4:06 PM:
Kinda reminds me of the Tennessee Lawrence (name?) family campaign from Kate Spade a few years ago. Doesn’t every fashion brand do the “big group family-and-friends artfully draped across furniture” campaign eventually?
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 3:37 PM:
@AEV—There is no need to scream. The over-the-knee duck boots are simply a runway spin off the classic Bean Boot. It’s fun. We can probably all agree this boot doesn’t translate to everyday wear…but it’s that piece in the collection that gets people talking. THAT’s the fashion element. Do you remember that there is still a fashion element in all of this? That’s why companies like J.Press are clamoring for new customers…because they lack the imagination to embrace even the slightest margin of fashion into their brand (update the fit, new marketing campaign, something…). I would never buy a duck boot by any one else other than L.L. Bean, but I can appreciate when they are utilized in this way for a beautiful fashion editorial.
@robdarko—Fair enough. I would expect nothing less and I hope we both find that flag largely absent from the collection.
@M—[Applause…]
@secret—I will politely argue the latter. Normal people selling clothes is tired. I want pretty back. I want pretty people telling me what I should buy. I want to be that pretty person. Tommy Hilfiger was bought by Phillips-Van Heusen (an American apparel company) so that Tommy himself could take back the reins.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 3:24 PM:
Who cares if rugby, hilfiger etc copy the classic designers like j.press and brooks brothers! That’s good it encourages progress and new ideas as well as offering similar items to appeal to a larger demographic. Just because they didn’t do it first they shouldn’t do it at all? That is ridiculous I’m glad there are companies “copying” the older brands it provides us with more options , and really who can complain about that? If you don’t like a particular company don’t buy their stuff as simple as that.
P.S. I think these photos are perfect and the story makes things more fun although supper cheesey it’s cute.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 2:29 PM:
Good looking clothes, especially for men. Period.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 1:50 PM:
I love this look and campaign. I can not begin to fathom the issue people are having with it. TH may have lost his way but I too was around when he first went mainstream and he put out some really good stuff before he “lost his way”. I said a couple of weeks ago that I would reserve judgement until I saw more, well Kudos that he’s back.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 1:43 PM:
If another person refers, with a lower case “b”, to the footwear abominations featured in these pics as “bean boots”, I am going to scream. Ripping of L.L. Bean’s iconic boot is shameless enough - making it into stripper atire should be an arrestable offence (as should casually referring to them as “bean” boots….there isn’t an ounce of L.L. Bean in those hideous things). Oh, and the one brand that is less “preppy” than Rugby? Hilfiger. Nothing in these pics is new, original (aside from the alien boots), or noteworthy - all simple rip-offs of classic standards already produced by numerous other brands - brands that, in most cases, have been making these classic items for decades or longer.
The forced attempt to pepper the ads with token pieces of establishment (old Wagoneers and Mercs) is such a desperate ploy to “fit in” it makes me sick….c’mon gang - can we please stop confusing this sort of opportunistic, marketing on steroids, copy-cat stuff as “preppy”?
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 1:20 PM:
Very well F.E.C., I will judge the apparel in person as soon as it is available. But I will be very upset if I see a flag or laurelled crest on any of the garments. I am looking for a certain preppy banality.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 1:08 PM:
I’ll reserve ultimate judgement on the clothing pending personal inspection. The right kind of girl will be able to pull off the neo-bean boot but only if she is unbelievably gorgeous or that oh so rare combination of playfulness and sass that I have been searching my whole life for. Ladies who fail to fit this description - tread carefully. With respect to the ad campaign, its contrived, but I like it. It recalls the Smirnoff Ice ‘Tea Partay,’ video: whoever put the campaign together at least did their homework and (so-far) demonstrates respect for the source material. The R. Tannenbaums comparison is apt, but Wes Anderson was not the first artist to portray dysfunctional rich people and their quirks. He was merely the best in recent memory. High marks are earned by the campaign designer for choosing the tongue-in-cheek approach as opposed copying RL’s overserious, artfully-airbrushed, and ultimately unnatainable vision of perfection. This campaign recognizes that the romance is in the decline, not the achievement.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 12:44 PM:
I dig all of this, 100%... It’s what a lookbook should be… it makes you LOOK…right? Right?
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 12:38 PM:
if they were actual people it would be much more interesting. tommy has been struggling for years… his company was just bought by an overseas brand so this is all coming from across the pond. even more ridiculous.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 12:10 PM:
@truth—
I’d like to take a moment to touch on web etiquette because it seems like you (among others) are unfamiliar with what is appropriate at Unabashedly Prep. And why would you be? I’ve never really touched on it because I assumed it was common knowledge. It is apparent now that I was wrong.
The Unabashedly Prep reader is free to express their opinions but they take responsibility for those opinions and accept the consequences (whether positive or negative). If you are going to start making accusations or speculations meant to be interpreted as jabs (especially at the author), you do so with a valid email address and first name (and last if you are a true gentleman). Anything less are the words of a coward.
With that being said Nick P. (in New York), the style Tommy was reclaiming was that from his own company…nothing more. I like seeing that…when your name is on the building, you owe the company that—you owe them your vision. Tommy lost that for a while. It’s good to see him actually taking pride in and taking back (from street wear) his eponymous brand.
I am not that flattered that the art director of the Tommy Hilfiger campaign ripped off one of my photographs…nor does that evoke some sort of emotional bond to this campaign or serve as bragging rights. Actually quite the opposite. You appear to be close to Rugby (if not employed be them) so I will not dwell too much on my comment, “Rugby just got schooled.” But I will explain it’s validity.
Rugby says they want to appeal to an older demographic (26-30 year old) yet Tommy’s fall campaign actually designed for it (completely).
...Tommy’s fall campaign actually photographed and styled for it.
...Tommy’s fall campaign actually casted appropriate models for it.
I believe in Lee Norwood’s (Vice-President of Design, Men’s) vision for Rugby. He is committed to producing the best menswear he possibly can. Their showroom always looks great…rigging imaginative yet grounded in utility. But it stops there unfortunately. Few actually get to see Lee’s vision in its most concentrated form before its watered down form trickles onto the sales floor, window displays and inboxes of newsletter subscribers.
Regarding this brand ambassador bitterness jab…I am disappointed more than anything else. Disappointed that there aren’t as many passionate individuals within the company as Lee. It’s more about timing than anything else. Rugby has a real opportunity to achieve a top to bottom cohesiveness but doesn’t see the value in it or have the budget to implement it.
Lastly, I have seen Rugby’s fall collection. I stand by my initial statement that it will not be presented or designed (once again, too many logos, numbers, patches, etc) as well. Of course, I would like to be proven wrong because that is ultimately better for the customer, the spirit of competition and fashion.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 11:48 AM:
I agree, the high-heeled bean boots are only for fashionistas. But I’m sure there is a market for them. After all, one top designer (can’t remember who it was) made a rude copy of the bean gum shoe one or two years back.
For the rest, I belong to the minority that actually likes the ad. Of course they’re over the top. Of course they’re riding the band wagon. But I like the details, the woollen socks paired with skirts and slacks, the elbow-tall gloves, high heels and ties at a tailgate picnic… there’s a sense of go to hell in the ad.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 10:57 AM:
Well, I am surprised by all the comments so far. Looks like everyone is appreciating Hilfiger’s attempt at “… Royal Tenenbaums touch of quirkiness and humor.” But really, this is unacceptable.
Oh, you know what else is unacceptable? Those high heeled Bean Boots. WTH? Who, other than fashionistas, would wear thigh high/high heel Bean Boots? Would they not be the equivalent of high heel Hunter boots? This is a sad day.
P.S. Do understand that the editorial value is not wasted on me but this is just too much.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 10:16 AM:
I actually really like this as well. I’m not sure if they were trying to compete with Rugby or not, but if they were, I would agree with Fred. Almost everything pictured looks very wearable (OK, maybe except the stripper-heel Bean Boots), something that I don’t think Rugby can boast about. So much of their stuff looks too costumey and too tongue-in-cheek. I like this.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 9:18 AM:
The social media aspect of this campaign i.e. the “storytelling” is incredibly stupid.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 7:31 AM:
Fred - I think I’m older than you are and I’ve been watching Tommy copying Ralph from the beginning of his career. Tommy has never had a style to get back -he has not had a single original idea in his entire life. I’m very familiar with when Rugby was founded. I also know that Tommy has been talking about creating (and actively interviewing for staff) “his own Rugby” since Rugby started.
As for saying Rugby “got schooled” - I know you’re flattered that they copied your photo (like they do with everything else) but come on. It sounds like someone is bitter that Rugby won’t create that brand ambassador position for him.
I’m sure that Rugby’s fall collection will blow this stuff out of the water, despite the fact that their campaign won’t be shot by you.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 5:28 AM:
absolutely adore these photographs! cannot wait for this collection!
xoxo
http://foxtrotfoxtrot12.blogspot.com/
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 2:57 AM:
Oooh that Black Watch jacket looks awesome. Where si the “Meet the Hilfigers” section on the website I cant find it.
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 1:39 AM:
i’m totally crazy about these and can’t wait to see the hilfiger’s in magazines. morgan’s must-haves…so cute!
left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 12:27 AM:
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left a comment on 7/15/2010 at 12:13 AM:
...gosh, down to the exact same car. Ripped off.
“This is a Ralph Lauren ad campaign where everyone’s in a good mood.” Haha so well put.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 11:38 PM:
@truth—You must be young because Tommy Hilfiger was doing this before Rugby (est 2004) was even around. While we’re on the subject…Rugby just got schooled. I don’t see this fall collection and styling being topped by anyone else. Fun, tongue-in-cheek, expansive target demographic…I just don’t see it happening. Tommy appears to know who he really is in this moment right now and going forward. He said he wanted his style back this year and by the looks of it, he reclaimed just that.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 11:16 PM:
I like it, any campaigns were models look happy win my heart. Now if only Tommy wouldn’t design suits with super tight shoulders and hefty bodies.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 11:01 PM:
interesting.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 10:02 PM:
I think this are good news. I’ll love to see more of it. I think it is too good to be true. Time will show us.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 9:43 PM:
I must be the first person to actually enjoy this campaign.. I think its interesting and i really want to see if it works.
I’m not quite old enough to have witnessed Tommy’s early-mid 90s transformation into more street wear. With that being said, tommy to me has always been cloths that were a little too baggy at Macys and Marshalls and preppy clothing a little too dad-esc. (I’m twenty)
I really enjoy what i’ve heard of the backstory. Though its slightly predictable its entertaining enough.
Responding to “Rugby Ripoff” - I don’t mind one bit, if that is your style (of mine it is) then this is only further promoting a cleaner style. One more company producing Rugby style clothing will not flood the market.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 9:28 PM:
Now this…is just another Rugby rip off. Tommy is a joke.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 7:55 PM:
I feel like this is a little too much. They are making too much effort to get the look.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 7:20 PM:
Tommy’s still around?!! Holy crap! Isn’t he exclusive to Macy’s and his own stores? Best of luck TH. Some of the pieces do look good. Thanks for sharing FEC.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 6:11 PM:
Sorry, Tommy, but this “daddy” ain’t buying it. I’ll defer to William Gibson’s description of Hilfiger in Pattern Recognition.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 6:09 PM:
Great photos with some nice looking patterns and excellent cars. This is a Ralph Lauren ad campaign where everyone’s in a good mood. I haven’t purchased any Hilfiger in more than ten years but may have to give it a second chance; the non logo-emblazoned items all look great.
left a comment on 7/14/2010 at 6:08 PM:
It will be interesting to see how the family saga and the collection develop.
happy left a comment on 8/5/2010 at 9:19 PM:
Isn’t that old guy the brook brothers old guy?