Tommy

Tommy Hilfiger has just opened a 500-square-meter store at 368-370 Rue Saint- Honoré in Paris. When I first met Tommy he was running a small group of blue-jeans stores in upstate New York and I was running a small group of blue-jeans stores in South Carolina. We had a few sources in common, some of the out-of-the-way brands from northern California and other exotic locales. I think it was at the Fashion and Boutique show in New York where we first met, some time around 1972. Later, we shared an apartment in California during one of the Boutique shows; I don’t recall now what city it was – perhaps LA. Tommy struck me then as a pretty serious young man, at a time and in a business that was pretty wild. I’ve followed his career with interest over the years, although I’ve never spoken with him again. I left the fashion business in the early 80’s after moving to Manhattan. I left the business but it’s still in my blood. I read Suzy Menkes in the Times and check in with the Fall and Spring shows in Paris, Milan and New York, just to see what people are making these days, to marvel at the fabrics, the shapes, and I have begun to recognize the cyclic nature of it all, the endless reinvention of classic forms. I wish Tommy well in his empire building, I’m happy for him and I hope he is having the time of his life. He has come a long way from Elmira, NY to Rue Saint- Honoré.